Compliance to compulsory vaccination: strategies and results

This report is devoted to analyze the effect that compulsory vaccination has on the compliance of the population, compared with the results obtained by massive campaigns for optional vaccinations. The implementation of a specific software for the management of individual schedules helps to reach a substantial complete coverage of the individuals for the first ones, while improving but incomplete results regard the vaccines against pertussis and measles-mumps-rubella, optional in Italy. The optimization of data management at the local health unit level improves the quality and the satisfaction of the work performed by the personnel, but has a limited effect on the already nearly complete coverage for the compulsory immunizations. The mounting percentage of children immunized with optional vaccines can be explained both by the massive campaigns of information conducted in recent years and by the better tracking of individual immunization schedules.