School vaccines: Learn what’s available in your province
School vaccines: Learn what’s available in your province
We bring together an interdisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, community partners, and community members to gather, interpret, and use insights to gain a holistic perspective and understand people’s behaviours and attitudes toward various health topics.
Over the years, we have conducted 60+ population-based surveys, 100+ focus groups and interviews, and analyzed over 8 million social media posts. We work with community partners to tailor surveys and interview guides to meet the needs of diverse populations.
We also provide consultation with public health professionals & subject matter experts to develop and translate insights.
Through population-based surveys we understand the needs of segments of the population.
Over the past four years, we have polled over 100,000 Canadians to understand public sentiment related to various health topics.
During the pandemic, we conducted weekly polling with the University of Toronto to understand public sentiment related to various health topics.
We explore the lived experiences and personal perspectives of specific populations through virtual and in-person interviews and focus groups.
Working with community partners, we conduct research activities in first languages to make participation more inclusive.
We synthesize existing insights through literature reviews, environmental scans, and scoping reviews.
Using machine learning and natural language processing, we are able to map and understand themes that emerge online related to relevant health topics.
We completed a survey to understand parents’ attitudes and beliefs related to measles, mumps and rubella vaccination.
We found that MMR vaccination is driven mostly by perceptions about the vaccine rather than threat perceptions related to measles, mumps and rubella.
Trust is centrally important in explaining MMR vaccine status, especially among those that consistently do not vaccinate their children. Credible information exposure (such as from providers) and knowledge help even after controlling for trust.
These insights informed our Power Up! Campaign aimed to increase awareness about missed MMR vaccinations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
We conducted a survey with 842 parents and 2 focus groups with recently, currently or soon to be pregnant parents to understand their current knowledge, awareness and beliefs related to RSV immunizations.
We found that while awareness of RSV and associated risks are high, few respondents were aware of maternal and infant immunizations.
These insights were used to inform a national RSV immunization awareness campaign.
We conducted a scoping review to determine which HPV self-sampling implementation and engagement strategies have been used to engage under screened populations (i.e., Indigenous, newcomer, and rural and remote communities) in cervical cancer screening.
Across 26 studies, we found that in-person engagement with trusted community leaders was the most widely used and accepted recruitment and engagement strategy across all three populations.
These findings informed our approach to training community health ambassadors to support Alberta’s HPV self-sampling pilot.
We conducted a survey with 1,435 Canadian women and 5 focus groups with priority populations and found that women are concerned about heart and brain health, but are unaware of age specific risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
These insights were used to inform the Heart & Stroke Foundation’s women’s campaign
We conducted a survey with 7,000 adults from Brazil, Canada, France, India, Nigeria, The United Kingdom and the United States to understand their perspectives and trust in COVID-19, influenza, HPV and pneumococcal vaccines.
We found that vaccine trust was highest in Brazil, India and Nigeria. To compliment this work, we also analyzed over 1 million tweets about the 4 vaccines across the same 7 countries and explored how social media discourse varies by country and vaccine.
These insights can be used to inform the tailoring of public health messaging for each country and vaccine based on their current perspectives.
We conducted 8 first-language focus groups with newcomer parents of school-aged children to understand RCV uptake among newcomers before and after the pandemic.
We found that parents are generally supportive of getting their children vaccinated but struggle with:
These insights informed the development of vaccine education materials in multiple languages which are now included in settlement services information packages for newcomers.
Using deep-learning modeling of natural language processing, we analyzed Twitter data on a weekly basis to explore the discourse related to COVID-19 vaccines.
We identified vaccine hesitant and vaccine confident networks and found that vaccine hesitancy was often fueled by mistrust in institutions and how deeply political the nature of COVID-19 vaccines were during the pandemic. In most cases, this was a greater concern than vaccine safety.
These insights were shared with public health leaders to inform vaccine communication.
We conducted virtual focus groups with Canadians across Canada to understand their attitudes and behaviours towards COVID-19 vaccinations in efforts to put forth recommendations for public health messaging.
Our team conducted weekly surveys of Canadians (n = ~2000/week) throughout 2020 to monitor COVID-19 public sentiment in partnership with the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. We found that there are four effects most important to consider in public health behaviour change efforts. These effects included:
CEILING EFFECT
Preaching to the
converted doesn’t work
CONSTELLATION EFFECT
People have different
reasons for hesitancy
BUBBLE EFFECT
Public health messages are stuck in an echo chamber
CHANNEL EFFECT
You have to reach people where they are
Praxus health works closely with a broad, multidisciplinary group of partners, who help provide expertise across the full range of Praxus Healths activities. From polling and data analysis, to community outreach, to communications, and everything in between, this diverse coalition drives the work of Praxus Health.
Whether you’re a community leader, healthcare professional, or simply passionate about improving health outcomes, there are many ways to get involved with Praxus Health. Together, we can transform healthcare for everyone.
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Discover Praxus Health’s multimodal approach to addressing healthcare challenges across Canada. Learn about our actionable insights, advocacy, and community partnerships. Join us today in transforming health outcomes
