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Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Childhood Vaccine Uptake With Administrative Data

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Journal article(1.31 MB)

Date

2024-03-28

Authors

Iusitini, Leon
Pacheco, Gail
Schober, Thomas

Supervisor

Item type

Journal Article

Degree name

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Abstract

This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on childhood vaccination coverage in New Zealand using population-wide administrative data. For each immunisation event from ages 6 weeks to 4 years, we compare vaccine uptake of children who became eligible for immunisation during the pandemic to earlier-born cohorts whose immunisations were due before the pandemic. We find that the initial phase of the pandemic had, on average, small or nil effects on timely immunisation at the four infancy events, but a large effect at the 4-year event of −15 percentage points. Nine months after eligibility, catch-up among the pandemic-affected cohorts was largely achieved for the infancy immunisations, but 4-year coverage remained 6 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels. Vaccine uptake at 4 years initially dropped most among children of European ethnicity and of non-beneficiary parents but catch-up quickly surpassed their Māori, Pacific, and beneficiary counterparts for whom sizeable gaps in coverage below pre-pandemic levels remained at the end of our observation period. The pandemic thus widened pre-existing inequalities in immunisation coverage.

Description

Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic, Childhood vaccine uptake, Immunisation, 4404 Development Studies, 44 Human Society, Infectious Diseases, Vaccine Related, Pediatric Research Initiative, Health Services, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Coronaviruses, Prevention, Immunization, Biodefense, Coronaviruses Disparities and At-Risk Populations, Clinical Research, 3.4 Vaccines, Infection, 3 Good Health and Well Being, 1117 Public Health and Health Services, 4202 Epidemiology, 4206 Public health, 4410 Sociology

Source

SSM: Population Health, ISSN: 2352-8273 (Print); 2352-8273 (Online), Elsevier, 26, 101657-. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2024.101657

DOI

10.1016/j.ssmph.2024.101657

Publisher's version

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827324000570

Rights statement

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Permanent link

http://hdl.handle.net/10292/21369

Collections

The New Zealand Policy Research Institute (NZPRI)