[Method and participation in a preschool immunization survey in Isère (France) during the 2010-11 school year]

The Isère department has carried out a study on vaccination programmes and sites of vaccination among schoolchildren in Isère. The objective of this article is to present the original and robust method used in the study. We also describe the participation rate in the study.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 4-year-old children in 2010/2011 during nursery school checkups. One hundred schools were randomly selected according to a complex sampling plan. The vaccination records of all children examined at checkups were photographed and data were cleared and adjusted. The participation of children in the study was investigated by distinguishing the reasons for exclusion from the study due to the mode of data collection and due to factors specific to the checkups. The factors studied concerned the intrinsic characteristics of the schools as well as data on organisation of the checkups. A total of 2,588 children from the 100 schools surveyed were included in the study, corresponding to a participation rate of 85.1%.

9.6% of the children selected were excluded for reasons specific to the checkups and 5.3% for reasons related to the study. Participation was higher for children examined by a team from the Maternal and Child Protection Unit (PMI: Protection maternelle et infantile), specialised in checkups. This was the only factor that appeared to impact the typical attendance of children at in nursery school health checkups.

This result can probably be generalised to the other tasks of the PMI and provides important information for the future organisation of the PMI's activities.