Predicting Young Adults’ Intentions to Get the H1N1 Vaccine: An Integrated Model

Young adults 19 through 24 years of age were among the populations that had the highest frequency of infection from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. However, over the 2009–2010 flu season, H1N1 vaccine uptake among college students nationwide was around 8%. To explore the social cognitive factors that influenced their intentions to get the H1N1 vaccine, this study compares the predictive power of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the health belief model (HBM), and an integrated model. The final model shows that several HBM variables influenced behavioral intentions through the TPB variables. The results suggest that even though the TPB seemed a superior model for behavior prediction, the addition of the HBM variables could inform future theory development by offering health-specific constructs that potentially enhance the predictive validity of TPB variables.