Compliance With National Immunization Guidelines for Children Younger Than 2 Years, 1996-1999

Abstract

Approximately 35.6% of children were compliant with prevailing childhood immunization recommendations from 1996 to 1999. Efforts to improve compliance with guidelines are recommended, to optimize childhood infectious disease prevention.

Immunisation status of children in Germany: temporal trends and regional differences

“…70% in our data [4]. Although coverage was high, compliance with national immunisation guidelines was in a similar high deficit [14]: only 35.6% of children were fully compliant with recommended immunisation practices.…”

Development of a questionnaire on knowledge, attitude and practice about immunization among Iraqi parents

“…The development and use of immunizations (vaccination) against infectious agents is important and a successful step towards disease prevention (Mell et al 2005). It is important that vaccines are administered at an age when a child can develop a proper immune response and before significant exposure to natural infections.…”

Frequent Vaccination Missed Opportunities at Primary Care Encounters Contribute to Underimmunization

“…In the mid-1990s, several studies demonstrated that pediatric practice missed opportunities to administer indicated vaccines at roughly 50% of the encounters. 6,[12][13][14] Our literature search did not yield any studies describing the frequency of vaccination MOs subsequent to the wide dissemination of the NVAC and CDC recommendations.…”

“…6,12 Two additional studies from the same era found that 50%-75% of children experienced at least one MO by the time they were 24 months old. 13,14 Although the frequencies of MOs reported in the earlier studies are in the same range as our own, the previously reported frequencies are slightly lower likely in part because those studies examined only 3 or 4 vaccine series (vs the 7 in our study) and had relatively low thresholds for valid medical contraindication to vaccination (eg, low-grade fever, history of fever in the last week, mild respiratory illness, sinusitis, and the need for follow up within 48 hours) reflecting the recommendations of the time.…”

“…Arguably, it is more important to examine correlates of MO-ODs than MOs in general because 30%-40% of children who have health care encounters at which eligible vaccinations are withheld actually do receive the vaccinations before they become overdue. 12,14 Given that there is a range of acceptable ages for vaccine doses, providers likely defer vaccinations during nonscheduled encounters for minor acute illness (technically MOs). This may seem acceptable when there is reasonable expectation that the child will return for vaccination within the recommended age range; however, a recent study found that 39% of infants who did not receive sick-visit vaccinations nonetheless failed to return for a timely health maintenance visit, resulting in both fewer health maintenance visits and greater rates of underimmunization than those who did receive sick-visit vaccinations.…”