Why school is crucial to increase vaccination coverage for children: Evaluation of school vaccination check program in South Korea 2021–2022

• Published in: Vaccine 2023-05, Vol.41 (21), p.3380-3386
• Main Authors: Kim, Seon Ju, Kwon, Seunghyun Lewis, Lee, Jae Young, Oh, Juhwan, Kwon, Geun-Yong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child; Children; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 vaccines; Education; Elementary school students; Encephalitis; Evaluation; Humans; Immunization; Immunization Programs; Middle school students; Middle schools; Pandemics; Public health; Republic of Korea; Schedules; School vaccination check program; Schools; Statistical analysis; Students; Tetanus; Vaccination; Vaccination Coverage; Vaccines; Whooping cough
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.04.038

•Maintaining high level of routine vaccination coverage is important to control the infectious disease outbreak.•School vaccination check program is effective to increase vaccination coverage for children.•Close collaboration with the health and education authority is needed to improve vaccination coverage for school-age children. The School Vaccination Check Program (SVCP) is a public health measure that aims to achieve high levels of National Immunization Program (NIP) vaccination coverage for children by checking the completion of the vaccination schedule for students when they enter elementary or middle school. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SVCP was stopped in 2020 and 2021, and restarted in June-August 2022. In this study, we examined and quantified the relationship with SVCP and the vaccination uptake by comparing the vaccination coverage of 2021 and 2022. Based on the standard schedule, the vaccination records of DTaP5, IPV4, MMR2 and IJEV4 were evaluated for elementary school students. The Tdap6, IJEV5 and HPV1 were evaluated for the students from middle school. Using a difference-in-difference study design and national level big data, the study compared vaccination coverage as of August 2021 and 2022. The study found that the SVCP was effective in increasing vaccination coverage for targeted vaccinations such as DTaP5, IPV4, MMR2 and IJEV4 for elementary school students, and Tdap6, IJEV5 for middle school students. However, the SVCP did not show a statistically significant effect on increasing vaccination coverage on HPV1 for middle school students. School can play an important role to improve vaccination coverage. Therefore, close collaboration with health and education authority is crucial to accomplish successful vaccination program reducing vaccine preventable disease outbreaks in schools.