[Representative early summer meningoencephalitis vaccination rates of school children in Styria]

Since the introduction of the Austrian TBE (tick-borne encephalitis) vaccination program in 1981 immunization coverage of children has not been investigated sufficiently. We investigated the influence of geographic and sociodemographic factors on the immunization coverage of school children in order to identify subpopulations with low immunization coverage. To this end a representative cross-sectional study was carried out in the county of Styria, Austria. The target population were children in the first, fourth and seventh year of school education. Therefore, the sample consisting of 3,196 children was divided into three age groups. children aged around 7, 10 and 13 years. The information concerning the immunization status of each child was recorded by means of an anonymous questionnaire given to parents by the classroom teachers on advice of the supervisory school authority. This procedure ensured the high overall response rate of 85.0%. The prevalence of at least one TBE vaccination was 91.4% for the 7 year old, 97.3% for the 10 and 97.1% for the 13 year old. The prevalence of basic TBE immunization was 84.0%, 91.7% and 92.3% resp. The lowest vaccination rates were found in families with four or more children and for those children who had mothers of the lowest educational level. Thus, for the future management of immunization programs it is crucial to put special emphasis on the identified population groups with deficient immunization coverage. The overall vaccination rates can be judged as satisfactory in the 13 year old children.