This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Home intervention, education improve childhood vaccination rates

Among children at high risk for poor health outcomes, home interventions with trained health care workers who provided information and education about vaccinations resulted in significantly higher immunization rates, according to recently published data.

“We developed a protocol of an enriched medical home intervention using community health worker home visitation to improve early childhood immunization up-to-date status. We found this demonstrated a positive impact on increasing immunization rates, especially for vulnerable children such as those living in poverty,” Susmita Pati, MD, MPH, chief of the division of primary care pediatrics at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, said in a press release. 

To determine if childhood vaccination rates are affected by an enriched medical home intervention, Pati and colleagues evaluated 201 children aged 2 years and younger whose families received home visits from community health workers for immunization support and 110 children who received usual care. Health care workers provided families with education about vaccinations and their importance, and provided personalized information regarding the child and their vaccination needs. All participants were considered ‘at-risk’ because of health care disparities, according to a press release.

Results demonstrated that children in the intervention group were significantly more likely to be up-to-date on their vaccines, compared with children in the usual care group (P = .01), after adjusting for differences in group characteristics.

“We believe this community health worker program integrated with the medical home has important implications for clinical practice and policy implementation. With further study, our model may provide a cost-effective approach to improving childhoods vaccination rates,” Pati said in the release. – by Casey Hower

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.