[Intervention with community health agents in immunization programs in the gypsy population]

To measure how the vaccination coverage of the Gypsy child population in the Cartuja and Almanjayar quarters evolved throughout a Health Education Intervention using Community Health workers belonging to the Gypsy community.

A descriptive study, pre-test/post-test, with no control group.

Community level. Primary Care.

The whole of the Gypsy child population under 14, consisting of 1,073 children, and four Community Health workers.

Health Education for mothers and carers, by means of home visits carried out by four Health workers, previously trained and contracted for this purpose for a year by the Andalusian School of Public Health.

We measured the Vaccination Coverage in September 1988 (42.2%) in order to establish the situation both at the start of the intervention in March 1990 (46.2%) and at its end in March 1991 (68.2%). We measured Vaccination Coverage of the different vaccine doses through frequency allocations.

The Health Centre increased Vaccination Coverage by 4% in 18 months. The intervention increased it by 22.2% in 12 months. This demonstrates the intervention's effectiveness and underlines the importance of carrying out this kind of intervention when working with at-risk population groups.