Ask and you shall be given: practice based immunisation coverage information

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• General Practice
• Immunisation Programs

Background:

• Assessing immunisation coverage is crucial for public health.
• Variability in childhood immunisation rates exists between general practices.
• Effective data collection methods are needed to monitor immunisation status.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a method for collecting immunisation information from general practices.
• To identify factors associated with variations in immunisation coverage levels.
• To explore the utility of this method for improving immunisation recall systems.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of children born in early 1990 within the Wellington district was identified via computer records.
• General practitioners provided immunisation status for children remaining with their practice.
• Practice characteristics were analyzed for correlation with immunisation coverage.

Main Results:

• The data collection method successfully identified approximately 80% of the target population.
• Immunisation data was obtained for 65% of the total cohort (841 children).
• Childhood immunisation coverage varied widely (0-100%) across practices, with a child neediness index being the sole significant explanatory factor.

Conclusions:

• The investigated method can form the foundation for a system to collect immunisation coverage data.
• This system could aid general practitioners in managing immunisation recall.
• Recall systems were found to be neither necessary nor sufficient for achieving high immunisation coverage in the studied practices.