Electronic and postal reminders for improving immunisation coverage in children: protocol for a systematic review and...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Preventive Medicine
• Health Systems Research

Background:

• Suboptimal immunisation coverage annually causes over one million deaths in children under five from vaccine-preventable diseases.
• Improving immunisation compliance requires multifaceted interventions, including health system-initiated reminders.
• Reminders prompt caregivers for timely appointments or re-engage those who have missed scheduled vaccinations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the effectiveness of various reminder strategies in improving immunisation coverage for children under five.
• To investigate the potential of electronic (email, social media) and postal (letters, postcards) reminders.
• To assess the impact of phone call reminders on vaccination adherence.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of published and unpublished randomised and non-randomised controlled trials.
• Comprehensive literature search across multiple databases (PubMed, Scopus, CENTRAL, etc.) and clinical trial registries.
• Duplicate screening, data extraction, and risk-of-bias assessment, with meta-analysis for homogeneous studies.

Main Results:

• Evidence synthesis on the efficacy of different reminder modalities (email, phone, social media, postal) in enhancing immunisation coverage.
• Quantification of intervention effects and assessment of heterogeneity using statistical methods (χ(2) test, I(2) statistic).
• Discussion of the applicability of findings, particularly for low- and middle-income countries.

Conclusions:

• Reminder systems show potential for improving childhood immunisation rates.
• Evidence-based dissemination strategies will include peer-reviewed publications, conferences, and policymaker summaries.
• Findings will inform strategies to reduce vaccine-preventable deaths in young children globally.