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Published on: June 11, 2012
Improving Vaccination Rates by Connecting Families to Community Resources
Joshua Arthur1, Ally Siegler Terhaar2, Jin Huang3
1Department of Pediatrics, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Insights
Connecting families with social resources through the PHASE program significantly improved childhood immunization adherence. This intervention helped reduce overdue vaccines, making participants indistinguishable from the control group over time.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Public Health Interventions
- Social Determinants of Health
Background:
- Low-income pediatric clinics often encounter families facing various social needs.
- These social needs can negatively impact health outcomes, including immunization rates.
- Existing healthcare models may not adequately address these social determinants of health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and evaluate a social needs intervention (PHASE program) in a low-income pediatric clinic.
- To assess the impact of the PHASE program on adherence to recommended childhood immunizations.
- To determine if connecting families to social resources improves vaccine uptake.
Main Methods:
- Implemented the PHASE program to screen for financial, food, and housing insecurity.
- Connected enrolled families with clinic and community-based social resources.
- Compared immunization adherence rates between intervention (PHASE) and comparison groups over time.
Main Results:
- PHASE-enrolled patients initially had 34% more overdue vaccines.
- By the second year, vaccine status in the intervention group improved significantly.
- At 18 months, PHASE patients had 0.47 fewer overdue vaccines compared to non-participants, a statistically significant difference.
Conclusions:
- Social needs interventions like PHASE can effectively improve childhood immunization adherence.
- Connecting families with social resources addresses barriers to healthcare access.
- Integrating social support into pediatric care is crucial for enhancing public health outcomes.
Abstract:
We developed a social needs intervention (the PHASE program) in a Midwestern, low-income, pediatric clinic to screen for financial needs, food insecurity, housing insecurity, and other needs and connect families to clinic and community-based social resources. We measured the impact of our intervention on adherence with recommended childhood immunizations. While PHASE-enrolled patients were overdue on 34% more vaccines at the time of enrollment, by the second year their vaccine status had improved to the point that the intervention and comparison groups were indistinguishable. Most notably, at 18 months, PHASE patients were overdue for 0.15 less vaccines than at the time of enrollment, while at the same time, non-participants were overdue for 0.32 more vaccines than at the time of enrollment-a statistically significant difference of 0.47 less overdue vaccines. This suggests that families that are connected with short and long-term resources can have an improvement in immunization adherence.
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