National, state, and local area vaccination coverage among children aged 19-35 months - United States, 2012

The National Immunization Survey (NIS) is a random-digit-dialed telephone survey used to monitor vaccination coverage among U.S. children aged 19-35 months. This report describes national, state, and selected local area vaccination coverage estimates for children born during January 2009-May 2011, based on results from the 2012 NIS. Healthy People 2020* objectives set childhood vaccination targets of 90% for ≥1 doses of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR); ≥3 doses of hepatitis B vaccine (HepB); ≥3 doses of poliovirus vaccine; ≥1 doses of varicella vaccine; ≥4 doses of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine (DTaP); ≥4 doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV); and the full series of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine (Hib). Vaccination coverage remained near or above the national Healthy People 2020 target for ≥1 doses of MMR (90.8%), ≥3 doses of poliovirus vaccine (92.8%), ≥3 doses of HepB (89.7%), and ≥1 doses of varicella vaccine (90.2%). Coverage increased from 68.6% in 2011 to 71.6% in 2012 for the birth dose of HepB.† Coverage was below the Healthy People 2020 target and either decreased or remained stable relative to 2011 for ≥4 doses of DTaP (82.5%), the full series of Hib (80.9%), and ≥4 doses of PCV (81.9%). Coverage also remained stable relative to 2011 and below the Healthy People 2020 targets of 85% and 80%, respectively, for ≥2 doses of hepatitis A vaccine (HepA) (53.0%), and rotavirus vaccine (68.6%). The percentage of children who had not received any vaccinations remained <1.0%. Although disparities in coverage were not observed for most racial/ethnic groups, children living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level had lower coverage than children living in families at or above the poverty level for ≥4 doses of DTaP (by 6.5 percentage points), the full Hib series (by 7.6 percentage points), ≥4 doses of PCV (by 8.6 percentage points), ≥2 doses of HepA (by 6.0 percentage points), and rotavirus vaccine (by 9.5 percentage points). Maintaining high coverage levels is important to maintain the current low burden of vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States and prevent their resurgence.