(Initiative to improve childhood immunisation uptake: a randomised controlled trial)
Childhood immunisation coverage in the UK is good, but maintaining high coverage levels is increasingly proving difficult. Mrs Maria Morgan and Dr Meirion Evans from the Bro Taf Health Authority in South Wales have tested the effectiveness of two interventions to improve uptake and their findings are published in this week's BMJ. They discovered that neither prompting the child's health visitor by telephone nor a direct mail reminder to parents achieved any significant improvement in uptake.
The authors conclude that district wide initiatives are unlikely to be successful and that effort should be concentrated on opportunistic and domiciliary immunisation activities at the primary healthcare team level.
Contact:
Dr Meirion Evans, Consultant in Communicable Disease Control, Public Health Directorate, Bro Taf Health Authority, Temple of Peace and Health, Cardiff mre@abton4.demon.co.uk