Scholars@Duke
Lavanya Vasudevan

Lavanya Vasudevan

Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Health
Duke Global Health Institute
lavanya.vasudevan@duke.edu
2200 West Main Street, Suite 600 Room 606, Durham, NC 27705
Office hours By appointment.  

Selected Publications

Changes in general and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among U.S. adults from 2021 to 2022.

Journal Article Annals of medicine · December 2024 IntroductionUnderstanding changes in vaccine hesitancy, overall and by sociodemographic characteristics, may highlight sub-populations for whom more intensive efforts are needed to increase vaccine uptake and confidence.MethodsWe analyzed ... Full text Cite

Retrospective analysis of pediatric patients with Burkitt lymphoma treated in Tanzania following the implementation of the 2016 National Treatment Guidelines: Poor outcomes to current standard-of-care therapy.

Journal Article Pediatr Blood Cancer · September 2024 BACKGROUND: Despite the excellent outcomes achieved in the treatment of pediatric Burkitt lymphoma (BL) in high-income countries (HICs), outcomes remain poor in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Efforts to improve BL outcomes in Tanzania included t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prior COVID-19 Diagnosis, Severe Outcomes, and Long COVID among U.S. Adults, 2022.

Journal Article Vaccines · June 2024 Given the increase in COVID-19 emergency department visits and hospitalizations during the winter of 2023-2024, identifying groups that have a high prevalence of COVID-19 cases, severity, and long-term symptoms can help increase efforts toward reducing dis ... Full text Cite

COVID-19 Diagnosis, Severity, and Long COVID Among U.S. Adolescents, National Health Interview Survey, 2022.

Journal Article American journal of health promotion : AJHP · May 2024 PurposeUnderstanding disparities in COVID-19 outcomes, overall and stratified by vaccination status, is important for developing targeted strategies to increase vaccination coverage and protect adolescents from COVID-19.DesignThe 2022 Nat ... Full text Cite

Association between COVID-19 Booster Vaccination and COVID-19 Outcomes among U.S. Adults.

Journal Article Vaccines · May 2024 Understanding the association between booster vaccination and COVID-19 outcomes can help strengthen post-pandemic messaging and strategies to increase vaccination and reduce severe and long-term consequences of COVID-19. Using the Household Pulse Survey da ... Full text Cite

Child and adolescent COVID-19 vaccination coverage by educational setting, United States.

Journal Article Public health · April 2024 ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic changed the setting of education for many children in the U.S. Understanding COVID-19 vaccination coverage by educational setting is important for developing targeted messages, increasing parents' confidence in COVI ... Full text Cite

Development and validation of VaxConcerns: A taxonomy of vaccine concerns and misinformation with Crowdsource-Viability.

Journal Article Vaccine · April 2024 We present VaxConcerns, a taxonomy for vaccine concerns and misinformation. VaxConcerns is an easy-to-teach taxonomy of concerns and misinformation commonly found among online anti-vaccination media and is evaluated to produce high-quality data annotations ... Full text Cite

Vaccination patterns and up-to-date status of children 19-35 months, 2011-2021.

Journal Article Vaccine · March 2024 IntroductionBeing up-to-date with all recommended vaccines is needed to protect children from vaccine preventable diseases. Understanding vaccination patterns is needed to develop messaging and strategies to increase vaccination uptake and confide ... Full text Cite

Interactive Narrative-Based Digital Health Interventions for Vaccine Communication: Protocol for a Scoping Review.

Journal Article JMIR research protocols · February 2024 BackgroundInteractive narrative-based digital health interventions hold promise for effectively addressing the complex determinants of vaccine hesitancy and promoting effective communication across a wide range of settings and vaccine types. Synth ... Full text Cite

Leveraging Community Health Workers and a Responsive Digital Health System to Improve Vaccination Coverage and Timeliness in Resource-Limited Settings: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Type 1 Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Study.

Journal Article JMIR Res Protoc · January 12, 2024 BACKGROUND: Tanzania is 1 of 20 countries where the majority of unvaccinated and undervaccinated children reside. Prior research identified substantial rural-urban disparities in the coverage and timeliness of childhood vaccinations in Tanzania, with child ... Full text Link to item Cite

Population Attributable Fraction of Nonvaccination of COVID-19 Due to Vaccine Hesitancy, United States, 2021.

Journal Article American journal of epidemiology · January 2024 Understanding the extent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) nonvaccination attributable to vaccine hesitancy versus other barriers can help prioritize approaches for increasing vaccination uptake. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Pre ... Full text Cite

Child and adolescent COVID-19 vaccination: Trends, hesitancy, and strategies for increasing vaccination in the United States

Chapter · January 1, 2024 Children and adolescents, especially those with underlying medical conditions, are susceptible to severe COVID-19 infection and outcomes such as hospitalizations or death, symptoms of long COVID-19, or conditions such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome i ... Full text Cite

Disparities in child and adolescent COVID-19 vaccination coverage and parental intent toward vaccinations for their children and adolescents.

Journal Article Annals of medicine · December 2023 IntroductionDespite recommendations for COVID-19 primary series completion and booster doses for children and adolescents, coverage has been less than optimal, particularly in some subpopulations. This study explored disparities in childhood/adole ... Full text Cite

An effective vaccine is only the first step: the need to create and sustain demand for TB vaccines.

Journal Article The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · October 2023 Full text Cite

Pregnant individuals' information needs and intention to vaccinate their children with routine and COVID-19 vaccines: Findings from a cross-sectional survey.

Journal Article Int J Gynaecol Obstet · July 2023 OBJECTIVE: The current study assessed pregnant individuals' intention to accept routine and COVID-19 vaccines for their baby after birth, and to identify key demographic (e.g., age) and nondemographic characteristics (e.g., prior birth) associated with vac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Is the intention to vaccinate enough? Systematic variation in the value of timely vaccinations and preferences for monetary vs non-monetary incentives among pregnant women in southern Tanzania.

Journal Article Vaccine: X · April 2023 BackgroundGlobally, approximately 19.7 million children remain under-vaccinated; many more receive delayed vaccinations. Sustained progress towards global vaccination targets requires overcoming, or compensating for, incrementally greater barriers ... Full text Cite

Key stakeholder perspectives on challenges and opportunities for rural HPV vaccination in North and South Carolina.

Journal Article Hum Vaccin Immunother · November 30, 2022 The objective of this study was to identify factors at the individual, provider, and systems levels that serve as challenges or opportunities for increasing adolescent vaccination-including Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination-in rural communities in the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Beyond coverage: Rural-urban disparities in the timeliness of childhood vaccinations in Tanzania.

Journal Article Vaccine · September 2022 BackgroundTimely vaccination maximizes efficacy for preventing infectious diseases. In the absence of national vaccination registries, representative sample survey data hold vital information on vaccination coverage and timeliness. This study char ... Full text Cite

COVID-19 vaccination intention and activation among health care system employees: A mixed methods study.

Journal Article Vaccine · August 19, 2022 BACKGROUND: Achieving high COVID-19 vaccination rates among employees is necessary to prevent outbreaks in health care settings. The goal of the study was to produce actionable and timely evidence about factors underlying the intention and decisions to obt ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Association of caregiver attitudes with adolescent HPV vaccination in 13 southern US states.

Journal Article Vaccine X · August 2022 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:  HPV vaccination coverage is lower than that of other adolescent vaccines in the southern US. This study sought to characterize caregiver attitudes associated with adolescent HPV vaccination in the southern US and to inform inter ... Full text Link to item Cite

Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to Inform the Design of the Mobile Inspección Visual con Ácido Acético System: Mixed Methods Case Study.

Journal Article JMIR Form Res · June 23, 2022 BACKGROUND: There is growing evidence supporting the use of mobile health (mHealth) interventions in low- and middle-income countries to address resource limitations in the delivery of health information and services to vulnerable populations. In parallel, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Qualitative Evidence Syntheses, Differences From Reviews of Intervention Effectiveness and Implications for Guidance

Journal Article International Journal of Qualitative Methods · February 11, 2022 Systematic reviews of qualitative research (‘qualitative evidence syntheses’) are increasingly popular and represent a potentially important source of information about people’s views, needs and experiences. Since 2013, Cochrane has published qualitative e ... Full text Cite

Prevalence of self-reported diabetes risk factors and integration of diabetes screening and referral at two urban HIV care and treatment clinics in Zambia.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2022 People living with HIV (PLWH) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) are living longer and are at risk of HIV co-morbidities including non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly in low-resource settings. However, the evidence base for effectively integrating ... Full text Cite

Editors' Introduction

Journal Article Journal of Applied Research on Children · January 1, 2022 Full text Cite

Predictors of HPV vaccination in the southern US: A survey of caregivers from 13 states.

Journal Article Vaccine · December 17, 2021 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite a high burden of human papillomavirus (HPV)-attributable cancers, the southern US lags other regions in HPV vaccination coverage. This study sought to characterize and contextualize predictors of HPV vaccination in the so ... Full text Link to item Cite

Caregiver Acceptability of Mobile Phone Use for Pediatric Cancer Care in Tanzania: Cross-sectional Questionnaire Study.

Journal Article JMIR Pediatr Parent · December 8, 2021 BACKGROUND: There is a 60% survival gap between children diagnosed with cancer in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and those in high-income countries. Low caregiver knowledge about childhood cancer and its treatment results in presentation delays a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Disparities in healthcare access and utilization and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine initiation in the United States.

Journal Article Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · December 2021 Currently in the United States, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage among eligible individuals is lower compared to coverage goals of 80% set by the HealthyPeople 2030 initiative. In this study, we used the National Health and Nutrition Examina ... Full text Cite

Examining Associations between Knowledge and Vaccine Uptake Using the Human Papillomavirus Knowledge Questionnaire (HPV-KQ).

Journal Article Am J Health Behav · September 30, 2021 Objectives: Understanding the relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) knowledge and vaccination behavior is important to inform public health interventions, yet few validated HPV knowledge scales exist. This study describes development of the Human ... Full text Link to item Cite

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding cervical cancer screening among women in metropolitan Lima, Peru: a cross-sectional study.

Journal Article BMC Womens Health · August 18, 2021 BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths among women of reproductive age in Peru. Screening and early identification of pre-cancerous lesions are a cornerstone of the cervical cancer prevention strategy. Yet, there is limited literat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Birth and death notification via mobile devices: a mixed methods systematic review.

Journal Article The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · July 2021 BackgroundMinistries of health, donors, and other decision-makers are exploring how they can use mobile technologies to acquire accurate and timely statistics on births and deaths. These stakeholders have called for evidence-based guidance on this ... Full text Cite

Digital Health Strategies for Cervical Cancer Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Systematic Review of Current Implementations and Gaps in Research.

Journal Article J Med Internet Res · May 27, 2021 BACKGROUND: Nearly 90% of deaths due to cervical cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In recent years, many digital health strategies have been implemented in LMICs to ameliorate patient-, provider-, and health system-level challenges ... Full text Link to item Cite

Caregiver Acceptability of Mobile Phone Use for Pediatric Cancer Care in Tanzania: Cross-sectional Questionnaire Study (Preprint)

Journal Article · February 16, 2021 BACKGROUNDThere is a 60% survival gap between children diagnosed with cancer in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and those in high-income countries. Low caregiver knowledge about ... Full text Cite

Prevalence and correlates of maternal early stimulation behaviors during pregnancy in northern Ghana: a cross-sectional survey.

Journal Article BMC pregnancy and childbirth · January 2021 BackgroundPer UNICEF's Nurturing Care Framework, early childhood development (ECD) begins during pregnancy and many lower-resource settings need data to inform their programs for optimal child development. The maternal-fetal relationship can be pa ... Full text Cite

Vaccine Hesitancy in North Carolina: The Elephant in the Room?

Journal Article N C Med J · 2021 Vaccine hesitancy is a persistent but under-prioritized issue in North Carolina. Plans are needed for systematic data collection on vaccine hesitancy trends, enhancing access to trusted sources of information, strengthening policies encouraging vaccination ... Full text Link to item Cite

Qualitative Evidence Syntheses Within Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care: Developing a Template and Guidance

Journal Article International Journal of Qualitative Methods · January 1, 2021 A growing number of researchers are preparing systematic reviews of qualitative evidence, often referred to as ‘qualitative evidence syntheses’. Cochrane published its first qualitative evidence synthesis in 2013 and published 27 such syntheses and protoco ... Full text Cite

Barriers to the uptake of cervical cancer services and attitudes towards adopting new interventions in Peru.

Journal Article Prev Med Rep · December 2020 Cervical cancer mortality is high among Peruvian women of reproductive age. Understanding barriers and facilitators of cervical cancer screening and treatment could facilitate development of contextually-relevant interventions to reduce cervical cancer inc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Poirot: Private contact summary aggregation: Poster abstract

Conference SenSys 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 18th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems · November 16, 2020 Physical distancing between individuals is key to preventing the spread of a disease such as COVID-19. On the one hand, having access to information about physical interactions is critical for decision makers; on the other, this information is sensitive an ... Full text Cite

Parental concerns and uptake of childhood vaccines in rural Tanzania - a mixed methods study.

Journal Article BMC public health · October 2020 BackgroundVaccine hesitancy has been recognized as an important barrier to timely vaccinations around the world, including in sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, 1 in 4 children is not fully vaccinated. The objective of this mixed methods study was t ... Full text Cite

Digital Health Strategies for Cervical Cancer Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Systematic Review of Current Implementations and Gaps in Research (Preprint)

Journal Article · August 17, 2020 BACKGROUNDNearly 90% of deaths due to cervical cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In recent years, many digital health strategies have been implemented in LMICs to ... Full text Cite

Lessons learned through piloting a community-based SMS referral system for common mental health disorders used by female community health volunteers in rural Nepal.

Journal Article BMC Res Notes · July 1, 2020 OBJECTIVE: The Community Informant Detection Tool (CIDT) is a paper-based proactive case detection strategy with evidence for improving help-seeking behavior for mental healthcare. Key implementation barriers for the paper-based CIDT include delayed report ... Full text Link to item Cite

Patterns of Mobile Phone Ownership and Use Among Pregnant Women in Southern Tanzania: Cross-Sectional Survey.

Journal Article JMIR mHealth and uHealth · April 2020 BackgroundThere is a paucity of subnational data on patterns of mobile phone ownership and use in Tanzania to inform the development of digital health interventions.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to assess patterns of mobile phone owne ... Full text Cite

Using digital health to facilitate compliance with standardized pediatric cancer treatment guidelines in Tanzania: protocol for an early-stage effectiveness-implementation hybrid study.

Journal Article BMC Cancer · March 29, 2020 BACKGROUND: In high-income countries (HICs), increased rates of survival among pediatric cancer patients are achieved through the use of protocol-driven treatment. Compared to HICs, differences in infrastructure, supportive care, and human resources, make ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluating the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mobile Health-Based Female Community Health Volunteer Program for Hypertension Control in Rural Nepal: Cross-Sectional Study.

Journal Article JMIR mHealth and uHealth · March 2020 BackgroundHypertension is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the world's leading cause of death. The prevalence of hypertension is disproportionately higher in South Asian countries than in other regions of the world. Scree ... Full text Cite

Evaluating the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mobile Health–Based Female Community Health Volunteer Program for Hypertension Control in Rural Nepal: Cross-Sectional Study (Preprint)

Journal Article · July 10, 2019 BACKGROUNDHypertension is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the world’s leading cause of death. The prevalence of hypertension is disproportionately higher in Sou ... Full text Cite

Do mobile phone-based reminders and conditional financial transfers improve the timeliness of childhood vaccinations in Tanzania? Study protocol for a quasi-randomized controlled trial.

Journal Article Trials · July 2019 BackgroundVaccination is a cost-effective strategy for reducing morbidity and mortality among children under 5 years old. To be fully protected from diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, and polio, children must receive all recomme ... Full text Cite

Digital Health and Health Systems of the Future.

Journal Article Global health, science and practice · October 2018 Full text Cite

Strengthening Delivery of Health Services Using Digital Devices.

Journal Article Global health, science and practice · October 2018 BackgroundDelivery of high-quality efficient health services is a cornerstone of the global agenda to achieve universal health coverage. According to the World Health Organization, health service delivery is considered good when equitable access t ... Full text Cite

A survey of healthcare-seeking practices and related stigma among community- and street-based children in Cambodia.

Journal Article International health · May 2018 BackgroundGlobally, street children comprise a growing population of vulnerable children. Understanding how they interact with healthcare systems is fundamental to efforts to improve their health and well-being.MethodsWe surveyed 75 stree ... Full text Cite

Digital tracking, provider decision support systems, and targeted client communication via mobile devices to improve primary health care

Journal Article Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · January 18, 2018 This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: In the context of primary healthcare settings, we aim to assess: effects of digitally tracking clients' health service use and status combined with decision support con ... Full text Cite

Birth and death notification via mobile devices

Journal Article Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · January 4, 2018 This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: Primary objectives: To assess the effects of birth notification via a mobile device, compared to standard practice. To assess the effects of death notification via a mo ... Full text Cite

Use of mobile phones for improving vaccination coverage among children living in rural hard-to-reach areas and urban streets of Bangladesh.

Journal Article Vaccine · January 2016 In Bangladesh, full vaccination rates among children living in rural hard-to-reach areas and urban streets are low. We conducted a quasi-experimental pre-post study of a 12-month mobile phone intervention to improve vaccination among 0-11 months old childr ... Full text Cite

Maternal determinants of timely vaccination coverage among infants in rural Bangladesh.

Journal Article Vaccine · September 2014 BackgroundTimely vaccination, i.e., the receipt of all scheduled vaccinations in an age-appropriate fashion, is critical for the prevention of deadly diseases in infants and achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goal to reduce infant mortal ... Full text Cite

Mobile health for non-communicable diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review of the literature and strategic framework for research.

Journal Article Global Health · June 13, 2014 BACKGROUND: Mobile health (mHealth) approaches for non-communicable disease (NCD) care seem particularly applicable to sub-Saharan Africa given the penetration of mobile phones in the region. The evidence to support its implementation has not been critical ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Clathrin light chains are required for the gyrating-clathrin recycling pathway and thereby promote cell migration.

Journal Article Nature communications · May 2014 The clathrin light chain (CLC) subunits participate in several membrane traffic pathways involving both clathrin and actin, through binding the actin-organizing huntingtin-interacting proteins (Hip). However, CLCs are dispensable for clathrin-mediated endo ... Full text Cite

mHealth innovations as health system strengthening tools: 12 common applications and a visual framework.

Journal Article Global health, science and practice · August 2013 This new framework lays out 12 common mHealth applications used as health systems strengthening innovations across the reproductive health continuum. ... Full text Cite

H_pe for mHealth: more "y" or "o" on the horizon?

Journal Article International journal of medical informatics · May 2013 ObjectiveEfforts in the domain of mobile health, or mHealth, have been criticized for the unfettered proliferation of pilots and a lack of a rigorous evidence base to support these strategies. In this letter, we present the response of a group of ... Full text Cite

A common clathrin-mediated machinery co-ordinates cell-cell adhesion and bacterial internalization.

Journal Article Traffic (Copenhagen, Denmark) · December 2012 Invasive bacterial pathogens often target cellular proteins involved in adhesion as a first event during infection. For example, Listeria monocytogenes uses the bacterial protein InlA to interact with E-cadherin, hijack the host adherens junction (AJ) mach ... Full text Cite

Clathrin phosphorylation is required for actin recruitment at sites of bacterial adhesion and internalization.

Journal Article The Journal of cell biology · October 2011 Bacterial pathogens recruit clathrin upon interaction with host surface receptors during infection. Here, using three different infection models, we observed that host-pathogen interactions induce tyrosine phosphorylation of clathrin heavy chain. This modi ... Full text Cite