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A cross-sectional vaccination coverage study in preschool children attending nurseries-kindergartens. Implications on economic crisis effect

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  • A cross-sectional vaccination coverage study in preschool children attending nurseries-kindergartens. Implications on economic crisis effect

    Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2016 Sep 26:0. [Epub ahead of print]
    A cross-sectional vaccination coverage study in preschool children attending nurseries-kindergartens. Implications on economic crisis effect.

    Georgakopoulou T1, Menegas D2, Katsioulis A3, Theodoridou M2, Kremastinou J1,4, Hadjichristodoulou C3.
    Author information

    Abstract

    Vaccination coverage studies are important in determining a population vaccination status and strategically adjusting national immunization programs. This study assessed full and timely vaccination coverage of preschool children aged 2-3 years attending nurseries-kindergartens (N-K) nationwide at the socioeconomic crisis onset. Geographically stratified cluster sampling was implemented considering prefectures as strata and N-K as clusters. The N-K were selected by simple random sampling from the sampling frame while their number was proportional to the stratum size. In total, 185 N-K (response rate 93.9%) and 2539 children (response rate 81.5%) participated. Coverage with traditional vaccines for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, polio and measles-mumps-rubella was very high (>95%), followed by Haemophilus influenzae type b and varicella vaccines. Despite very high final coverage, delayed vaccination was observed for hepatitis B (48.3% completed by 12 months). Significant delay was observed for the booster dose of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) and meningococcal C conjugate vaccines (MCC). Of the total population studied, 82.3% received three PCV doses by 12 months, while 62.3% received the fourth dose by 24 months and 76.2% by 30 months. However, 89.6% received at least one MCC dose over 12 months. Timely vaccinated for hepatitis A with 2 doses by 24 months were 6.1%. Coverage was significantly low for Rotavirus (<20%) and influenza (23.1% one dose). High vaccination coverage is maintained for most vaccines at the beginning of the crisis in Greece. Coverage and timeliness show an increasing trend compared to previous studies. Sustained efforts are needed to support the preventive medicine system as socioeconomic instability continues.


    KEYWORDS:

    Greece; Vaccination coverage; child preschool; socioeconomic crisis; vaccination

    PMID: 27669156 DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2016.1230577
    [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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