About

Matthew L. Boulton, MD, MPH, is the Pearl L. Kendrick Collegiate Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he also serves as a Professor of Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine, and Internal Medicine in the Infectious Disease Division of Michigan Medicine. He holds the position of Senior Associate Dean for Global Public Health and is the Director of the Office of Global Public Health, as well as the Senior Advisor for Research at the university-wide Center for Global Health Equity. Dr. Boulton is the first named professorship in global public health in the school's history and is the current Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. He is also the Director of the NIH-funded Minority Health & Health Disparities International Research Training Program. His previous roles include Associate Dean for Practice and founder of the school's Office of Public Health Practice. With over 16 years of experience in public health practice, he has served as a local health department Medical Director, Governor Jennifer Granholm’s Chief Medical Executive, State Epidemiologist, and Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology in Michigan’s health department. Dr. Boulton's research interests encompass global health, vaccine equity, childhood vaccinations, infectious disease epidemiology, preventive medicine, and health workforce issues in low- and middle-income countries. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and received approximately 40 awards recognizing his contributions to public health leadership, research, and education.

Research topics

• Environmental health
• Medicine
• Geography
• Immunology
• Demography
• Virology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Cartography
• Statistics
• Internal medicine
• Mathematics
• Family medicine

Selected publications

• An analysis of causality assessed serious and severe adverse events following COVID-19 vaccines administered from January 2021 to September 2022 in India

  Expert Review of Vaccines · 2025-11-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Vaccine safety surveillance is one of the important elements of immunization program. Causality assessment of adverse events and dissemination of their results are equally important to ensure quality of vaccines and confidence in immunization program. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: All types of AEFIs are reported through national AEFI surveillance program that is a passive surveillance system. An analysis of causally assessed serious and severe adverse events following COVID-19 vaccines from January 2021 to September 2022 was conducted. These AEFIs are classified according to WHO's AEFI causality assessment protocol. A descriptive statistic across each category is being presented. RESULTS: Overall, causality assessment data of 2713 serious/severe AEFIs following COVID-19 vaccines was available for the study. Half of the serious/severe AEFIs were found to be coincidental and 15% were classified as vaccine-product-related reactions. There were 42 cases of thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome and 12 cases of deep vein thrombosis. The proportion of COVID-19 infection among the total serious/severe AEFIs was 7%. CONCLUSION: Causality assessment of AEFIs played key role in ensuring quality of the vaccination program. The proportion of the key serious events including TTS and GBS were rare and immunization program-related errors were negligible.

  PublisherDOI

• The American Journal of Preventive Medicine at 40 Years

  American Journal of Preventive Medicine · 2025-11-19

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• HPV vaccination coverage, hesitancy, and barriers: Insights from a serial cross-sectional study in Shanghai, China (2019–2024)

  Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics · 2025-06-09 · 5 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women globally and a significant public health challenge in China, which accounts for nearly 18% of global cervical cancer cases. The HPV vaccine is a proven intervention for preventing high-risk HPV infections and associated cancers. This serial cross-sectional study conducted in Shanghai, China, in 2019 and 2024 analyzed changes in HPV vaccination rates and vaccine hesitancy. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the associations between HPV vaccination, general vaccine hesitancy, and HPV-specific vaccine hesitancy, adjusting for sociodemographic factors. The Population Attributable Fraction (PAF) quantified the proportion of non-vaccination attributable to these factors. In 2019 and 2024, two waves of data were collected from 1,037 and 1,450 parents, respectively. Results showed an increase in HPV vaccination from 6% to 30% during the study period, primarily among women aged 18 and older, while coverage among the WHO target group (girls aged 9-14) remained low at 8%. Parents with HPV-specific vaccine hesitancy were 75% less likely to vaccinate their daughters (OR = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.11-0.56), while general vaccine hesitancy reduced vaccination likelihood by 94% (OR = 0.06, 95% CI: 0.00-0.89). PAF analysis indicated that HPV-specific vaccine hesitancy contributed to 24% of non-vaccination cases, higher than general vaccine hesitancy (10%). These findings highlight the critical need for targeted interventions addressing HPV-specific barriers, improving education about vaccination timing and options, and reducing logistical obstacles to align with global cervical cancer elimination goals.

  PublisherDOI

• Mpox awareness and vaccination willingness among a household cohort in Matlab, Bangladesh

  Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2025-02-26

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Awareness of mpox and acceptance of vaccinations are important components of a passive surveillance system and public health control efforts. We estimate and explore factors in awareness of mpox and acceptance of mpox vaccination in Matlab, a rural region of Bangladesh. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey in August and September 2022. A total of 700 households were approached, screened against the inclusion criteria and consented. Households were administered a survey questioning basic demographics, health access, community and government trust, sources of health information, awareness of mpox and intent to be vaccinated against mpox if the vaccine were available at no cost. We summarized the data through a univariate analysis and explored factors in awareness of mpox through a logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the 700 recruited households, 501 completed the survey. Of these, 64% were aware of mpox and 94% were willing to be vaccinated against mpox. Older age had a negative association with awareness of mpox, with a -0.5 percentage point difference (95% confidence interval -1.0 to 0.1); no other demographic factor had a significant or near-significant association. Having access to a bank account and attending a clinic for healthcare needs had a significant positive association with mpox awareness. CONCLUSION: There are strides to be made in increasing mpox awareness to strengthen passive surveillance efforts and personal protection efforts in Matlab and similar regions. This may be done through educational campaigns, increasing access to healthcare and overall improvements in health literacy. However, acceptance of the vaccination is high, presenting a learning opportunity for other contexts.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Awareness of HIV, HPV, and Gonorrhea, and acceptance of vaccines against them, among displaced persons and their host communities in Bangladesh

  Research Square · 2025-02-21 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Longitudinal association between parents’ reported vaccination program preferences and children’s actual immunization patterns in Shanghai, China

  BMC Public Health · 2025-03-14 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: As China expands its national immunization program, it is essential to understand parents' beliefs about pediatric vaccination programs and the translation into actual vaccination decision-making for their children. This study aims to characterize parents pediatric vaccination program preferences and assess the association between parents' reported vaccination preferences and their children's vaccination status. METHODS: In a prospective cohort study in Shanghai, China, we linked parents' survey responses about their preferences for pediatric vaccine programs when the child was ≤ 3 months in 2017 to their children's immunization records in 2020. We classified parents by their vaccination program preferences through a latent class analysis (LCA). Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the association between immunization patterns and respondents' LCA results. RESULTS: The 469 parents were split into four classes: governmental clinic advocates (20%), careful deciders (45%), convenience-focused (19%), and prefer less co-administration (16%). Among the children 66% received combination vaccines, 91% had received at least one imported vaccine, and the average number of office visits by the age of six months was 7. CONCLUSIONS: There were no associations between parents' reported preference categories and children's vaccination patterns. The high acceptance of combination vaccines and tolerance of co-administration gives parents choices for vaccination and impart increased confidence in including new vaccines in the vaccination program.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2023 Article of the Year

  American Journal of Preventive Medicine · 2024-06-19

  editorial1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Trends in childhood vaccination in Pakistan and associated factors; 2006–2018

  Vaccine · 2024-01-11 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  INTRODUCTION: Pakistan still has ongoing transmission of wild type polio virus. This study aims to determine changes in full vaccination with recommended Expanded Program on Immunization vaccines, including polio, by several socio-economic and demographic factors. METHODS: We used three waves of Pakistan's Demographic and Health Survey, a population-based cross-sectional study from 2006-07 (N = 1471), 2012-13 (N = 1706), and 2017-18 (N = 1549), analyzed by residence, wealth, and sociodemographic factors. Analysis was limited to children aged 12-23 months in Punjab, Sindh, Northwest Frontier Province/Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Full vaccination was measured as receipt of one Bacillus Calmette-Guérin dose, one measles dose, 3 polio doses, and 3 Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis doses. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) from logistic regression were used to determine associations between undervaccination and demographic variables. RESULTS: Full vaccination coverage was 50.6 % in 2006-07, 54.7 % in 2012-13, and 68.3 % in 2017-18. In 2006-07, the odds of undervaccination were significantly higher in Sindh (OR: 1.74, 95 % CI: 1.30, 2.31) than Punjab, and disparities across province changed over time (P < 0.0001); notably, undervaccination was significantly higher in Sindh, KPK, and Balochistan than Punjab in 2017. Compared to the middle wealth quintile, the poorest had significantly higher odds of undervaccination in 2006-07 (OR: 2.58, 95 % CI: 1.76, 3.78), and this did not significantly change over time (P = 0.2168). The proportion of those with a polio birth dose increased across waves from 56.3 % in 2006-07 to 83.7 % in 2017-18; receiving three or more polio vaccine doses remained unchanged. CONCLUSION: This study showed that the proportion of fully vaccinated children in Pakistan increased across three waves. Full vaccination and administration of polio vaccine birth doses have increased recently in Pakistan. The association between undervaccination with province differed significantly across the waves, with vaccination disparities between provinces increasing. Those in the poorest wealth quintile had the greatest odds of undervaccination.

  PublisherDOI

• Masthead

  American Journal of Preventive Medicine · 2024-02-19

  paratextOpen access1st author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration following traumatic brain injuries

  Anatomical Science International · 2024-05-13 · 19 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) commonly occur following head trauma. TBI may result in short- and long-term complications which may lead to neurodegenerative consequences, including cognitive impairment post-TBI. When investigating the neurodegeneration following TBI, studies have highlighted the role reactive astrocytes have in the neuroinflammation and degeneration process. This review showcases a variety of markers that show reactive astrocyte presence under pathological conditions, including glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), Crystallin Alpha-B (CRYA-B), Complement Component 3 (C3) and S100A10. Astrocyte activation may lead to white-matter inflammation, expressed as white-matter hyperintensities. Other white-matter changes in the brain following TBI include increased cortical thickness in the white matter. This review addresses the gaps in the literature regarding post-mortem human studies focussing on reactive astrocytes, alongside the potential uses of these proteins as markers in the future studies that investigate the proportions of astrocytes in the post-TBI brain has been discussed. This research may benefit future studies that focus on the role reactive astrocytes play in the post-TBI brain and may assist clinicians in managing patients who have suffered TBI.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• International Collaborations in Infectious Disease Research (ICIDR) (U01)

  NIH · $3.6M · 2010–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Douglas Weatherwax

  Office of Science

  479 shared

• Julia Martinroe

  Office of Science

  479 shared

• Quang Doan

  Vietnam National University, Hanoi

  479 shared

• Patricia Quinlisk

  Iowa Department of Public Health

  479 shared

• Patrick Remington

  479 shared

• Stephen Spriggs

  Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services

  479 shared

• Timothy W. Jones

  University of Western Australia

  478 shared

• Phyllis King

  Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services

  478 shared

Awards & honors

• Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award
• Alumni of the Year Award
• John H. Romani Award for contributions to public health lead…
• American College of Preventive Medicine Board of Regents’ Aw…