Lyme disease, a multisystem illness caused by B. burgdorferi, is the most common vector-borne illness in the United States. In theory, it could be prevented, but in practice, it continues to grow as a public health problem. While Lyme disease affects all ages; school-aged children, in particular, are a high risk group. Our overall goal is to develop, implement, evaluate and disseminate an effective and generalizable program to reduce Lyme disease in endemic areas. We will elevate awareness of tick-borne illness and promote safety among families through an efficient, low-cost, and easily adopted school-based program. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health, the local school systems, entomologists and decision analysts at the Harvard School of Public Health, we propose a randomized controlled trial of a primary prevention program in 3 highly endemic areas of Lyme disease in MA. The school-based intervention consists of a 1) focused behavioral educational intervention with 2) habitat modification aimed at students in the elementary and middle schools of these communities. The material and delivery has been refined by our experience with the Nantucket Ferry Lyme disease education study, a controlled trial of 30,000 subjects which has successfully increased precautionary behavior and reduced tick-borne illness and the """"""""Feel Find Free"""""""" education program, a pilot program for school-aged children on Martha's Vineyard that successfully increased children's knowledge of Lyme disease and increased their precautionary behavior. We will evaluate whether our intervention reduces the incidence of Lyme disease, increases the practice of precautionary behavior and affects the vector burden in residential areas. Mechanisms of behavior change, such as self-efficacy, behavioral intention and practice will also be studied as will its cost-effectiveness. The program will be designed to be practical and sustainable as a permanent part of the school curriculum and will be disseminated to the community in the final year of the project.
| Shadick, Nancy A; Zibit, Melanie J; Nardone, Elizabeth et al. (2016) A School-Based Intervention to Increase Lyme Disease Preventive Measures Among Elementary School-Aged Children. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 16:507-15 |
