Screening for measles vaccination in young Japanese non-healthcare workers through self-reported history

The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of a self-administered questionnaire as a prescreening tool to determine the immune status against measles among non-healthcare workers.

The study subjects were Japanese non-healthcare workers aged 19-30 yr employed at a gas company that underwent an annual health checkup in 2009. Their histories of measles infection, vaccination and possible contact with measles patients were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. The sensitivity and specificity of these self-reports were analyzed against a serum anti-measles IgG assay as a gold standard.

Of the 509 respondents, 93.3% had immunity against measles. The sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values for the self-report questionnaire were 14.1, 97.1 and 98.5% for infection history; 39.2, 73.5 and 95.4% for vaccination history; and 13.1, 85.3 and 92.5% for possible contact history, respectively.

Self-reported histories poorly predicted immune status against measles in young Japanese non-healthcare workers. The results suggest that a universal serological screening is still the most effective method available to identify those who require measles vaccination.