Improving Vaccine Knowledge Among Adolescents Aged 11–14 Years: A Pre–Post School-Based Educational Intervention

: Background/Objectives: Schools may represent an ideal setting for increasing vaccine literacy and uptake. This quasi-experimental study took place between February and June 2025 with the aim of assessing the feasibility and effectiveness of a school-based educational intervention about vaccination among Italian adolescents. Methods: The European Commission's e-Bug methodology was used to enhance vaccine knowledge in a sample of students attending four randomly chosen middle schools from Southern Italy. Pre and post-intervention vaccination knowledge was assessed through a questionnaire and compared through the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Regression models were used to identify predictors of intervention-related outcomes. Results: A total of 262 students (mean age 12.3 ± 0.7 years, 52.3% female) participated in the study. A significant increase in vaccination knowledge score was registered from pre (5.6 ± 1.43) to post-intervention (6.79 ± 1.77). A significant improvement was found to be related to a lower number of cohabitants (OR = 0.61; 95% CI = 0.45-0.82), a lower score in the pre-test (OR = 0.60; 95% CI = 0.47-0.77), having considered the information provided completely clear (OR = 1.98; 95% CI = 1.05-3.74), and being willing to participate in similar future interventions (OR = 2.23; 95% CI = 1.12-4.42). Conclusions: These results show the effectiveness of school-based education strategies in increasing vaccine literacy within the targeted adolescent population. Similar interventions can be useful to increase compliance with vaccination in this age class. Randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm these findings.