Effect of reminder notices on the timeliness of early childhood immunizations.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether reminder notices would improve the timeliness of toddler-age vaccinations.

DESIGN

Prospective, randomized, controlled trial.

POPULATION STUDIED

Two convenience cohorts of 320 children due to receive either measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine (at 12 months of age) or diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT)-inactivated polio (IPV)- Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) booster vaccine (at 18 months of age).

SETTING

Suburban community.

INTERVENTIONS

Parents of the identified children were randomly assigned either to a group to receive a reminder notice of pending vaccinations or a control group that did not receive a notice at a ratio of 1:1. Immunization uptake was assessed eights weeks after the initial due date for vaccination.

RESULTS

Information was obtained for 224 children in the MMR group and 227 children in the DPT-IPV-Hib booster group. MMR uptake within eight weeks of the due date was about 90% in both the test and control groups, probably because of publicity surrounding a local college-based measles outbreak. In the DPT-IPV-Hib group, reminder notices had no effect; the uptake rates within eight weeks of the due date were 73.7% to 75.2%. Delays in immunization resulted mostly from parents' scheduling problems and provider-recommended delays. More than half of the parents whose child had delayed immunization did not recall receiving the reminder notice.

CONCLUSIONS

Mailed reminders did not increase on-time immunization rates in the second year of a child's life. A telephone call or a more memorable reminder notice may be better suited to catch the attention of parents.