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Strategies urged to promote second dose of varicella vaccine
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Non-Hispanic white and black children who have parents with higher education levels were less likely to receive a second dose of varicella vaccine in a recent study, and this population should be targeted to boost compliance with the recommended vaccine schedule, according to a study published online.
Rulin C. Hechter, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the department of research and evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena looked at data on 67,977 children between the ages of 4 and 6 in the Kaiser Immunization Tracking System to find correlations with non-adherence to a second dose of varicella vaccination.
The researchers performed correlation and multivariable regression analyses and found that younger children had a better compliance rate with the second dose compared with older children (76.1% for 4-year-olds, 43.2% for 5-year-olds, and 17.3% for 6-year-olds). The researchers also reported that white, non-Hispanic children living in communities where more than 75% of adults had high school diplomas were more likely to not have received the second dose of the vaccine.
Hechter and colleagues noted that children ages 5 and 6 who had a female practitioner were more likely to complete the vaccine series, but this same result was not found among 4-year-olds. The difference in adherence related to race “concurs with the findings from a previous study that showed Hispanic parents were more likely than white or black parents to report that they generally follow their doctor’s recommendations about vaccines for their children and less likely to have ever refused a vaccine.”
The study authors concluded that their data indicated more efforts to promote the second-dose of varicella vaccine are needed among physicians specializing in family medicine, and a school law that requires a second dose of varicella vaccine may also help achieve higher adherence rates.
Disclosure: Dr. Hechter received research funding from Merck & Co. for other vaccine studies.
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