Aimee Challenger

Overview

Influenza vaccinations

My project is interested in examining ways to increase vaccine acceptance. Annual influenza vaccinations are recommended for all front-line healthcare workers with direct patient contact. One of the recommended approaches to increasing vaccination uptake is myth busting. However, research has noted that the myth-busting strategies used by health campaigns can experience a “backfire effect” whereby repeating the myth to individuals reinforces the information and they do not retain information about the “fact”. I have been investigating whether this effect is present in healthcare workers.

Science in the media

I am also part of a team which investigates things go wrong in the communication between scientists and  journalists. We hope to improve the way health-related research  is reported in the media. You can find out more information here: http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/insciout/

Chromosomal deletions and duplications

I volunteer on a project investigating the psychiatric phenotypes of individuals with chromosomal deletions and duplications.