Birth Month and Influenza Vaccination in Children

Abstract

How to use the child/adolescent immunization schedule Recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip) and approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov), American Academy of Pediatrics (www.aap.org), American Academy of Family Physicians (www.aafp.org), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (www.acog.org), and American College of Nurse-Midwives (www.midwife.org). UNITED STATES Helpful information y Complete ACIP recommendations: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/index.html y General Best Practice Guidelines for Immunization: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/general-recs/index.html y Outbreak information (including case identification and outbreak response), see Manual for the Surveillance of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual Download the CDC Vaccine Schedules App for providers at www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/schedule-app.html.

The Nicaraguan Pediatric Influenza Cohort Study, 2011-2019: influenza incidence, seasonality, and transmission

“…Others have shown patterns of influenza immunity by birth month: children in the US aged 2-5 years were more likely to be vaccinated if their birthdays occurred between September and December, with those children also less likely to be diagnosed with influenza. This likely occurred because young children typically have their annual checkups near their birthday, meaning they’d be vaccinated [30]. Pregnant women are a priority group for influenza vaccination because of the protection afforded to newborns [31], and our finding that incidence was lower for infants born during influenza epidemics is likely related to passively acquired maternal immunity, which declines over the first 6-12 months of life [32].…”

Association of Maternal Cervical Disease With Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Among Offspring

“…This database has been used in prior studies of vaccinations, including the HPV vaccine, in children, adolescents, and adults. 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 Owing to the use of deidentified data, this study was deemed exempt from review by the Harvard Medical School Institutional Review Board. The study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology ( STROBE ) reporting guideline.…”

“…Specifically, if confounding factors (eg, socioeconomic factors) are associated with greater likelihood of maternal cervical abnormalities and lower rates of child HPV vaccinations, a failure to account for these factors would lead us to spuriously conclude that a maternal history of cervical abnormalities has no salience for child HPV vaccinations (ie, it does not raise the likelihood of vaccination). We used Cox proportional hazards regression to generate models that were adjusted for state of residence, calendar month of birth (which has been previously associated with variation in child vaccination rates 19 ), year of birth, number of insurance dependents in the household, number of child preventive care visits, MSA mean per capita income, and MSA percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education.…”

“…We used the MarketScan Commercial Database (IBM Corp), which contains commercial insurance claims of tens of millions of Americans covered by employer-sponsored insurance plans from more than 300 employers. This database has been used in prior studies of vaccinations, including the HPV vaccine, in children, adolescents, and adults . Owing to the use of deidentified data, this study was deemed exempt from review by the Harvard Medical School Institutional Review Board.…”

How behavioral economics can inform the next mass vaccination campaign: A narrative review

“…Children with summer birthdays are less likely to be vaccinated because yearly visits to the pediatrician occur near their birthdays—right before vaccine availability at pediatrician offices— and make follow-up visits inconvenient. ( Worsham et al, 2020 ) Breaking normative practices of pediatric vaccination, such as by expanding vaccination beyond pediatrician offices, could increase influenza vaccination for children because default locations are integrated into the lives of the decision-maker: the guardian. Other default behaviors that make vaccination convenient include making vaccine records easy to carry or present to vaccinators.…”