Aditya Santoki (SOL ’19) and faculty advisor Sanford professor Nathan Boucher recently published an article in the North Carolina Medical Journal examining barriers to vaccination in Durham County’s vulnerable adult populations. This article stems from research Santoki conducted through his community based research (CBR) 
project supported by SOL funding in summer 2019. Santoki interviewed fifty-four patients at the Adult Immunizations Clinic of the Durham County Department of Public Health to determine what factors influenced their decision to receive vaccinations. Ultimately this study determined that providers frequently refer low-socioeconomic status patients to the health department to receive routine vaccinations. This may add another step that makes it more difficult for adults to receive vaccines and adds to their vaccine-hesitancy. Additionally the study found that an enhanced understanding of how vaccines work or even an understanding of the public health importance of vaccines may not correlate with lower vaccine hesitancy. Rather patients tend to prefer the advice of vaccine-hesitant family members over the advice of their physicians. Future interventions may include reaching out to vaccine-hesitant patients through community health workers to more effectively reduce vaccine-hesitancy.
Santoki continues to perform medical and public health research to make a difference in communities, currently working as an independent researcher with the National Institutes of Health.