Faculty of Health, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
School of Nursing, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
BMJ Open. 2023 Jun 26;13(6):e073172. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-073172.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of keeping up to date on routine vaccinations. Throughout the pandemic, many routine vaccine programmes in Canada were paused or cancelled, including school-based immunisation programmes (SBIP). This resulted in decreased coverage for many vaccine-preventable diseases. While the effects of the pandemic on SBIP have been described in other provinces, its effects in the Maritime region (ie, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) have yet to be understood. We aim to determine how these programmes were affected by COVID-19 and associated public health measures in the Canadian Maritimes by (1) identifying and describing usual and interim catch-up programmes; (2) exploring stakeholders' perceptions of SBIP through interviews; and (3) designing recommendations with stakeholders to address gaps in SBIP and vaccine coverage.
A sequential, explanatory mixed methods study design will be used to address the objectives during the study period (September 2022-December 2023). First, an environmental scan will describe changes to SBIP and vaccine coverage over a period of five school years (2018/2019-2022/2023). Findings will inform semistructured interviews (n=65) with key stakeholders (eg, health officials, healthcare providers, school officials and parents and adolescents) to explore perceptions of SBIP and changes in parental vaccine hesitancy during the pandemic. These data will be integrated to design recommendations to support SBIP during two stakeholder engagement meetings. Analysis will be guided by the behaviour change wheel, a series of complementary tools and frameworks to simplify behaviour diagnosis and analysis in public health research.
Ethics approval for this study has been obtained from Dalhousie University's Health Sciences Research Ethics Board (Ref: 2022-6395). Informed consent will be obtained from participants prior to participating in an interview or stakeholder engagement meeting. Study findings will be disseminated through conference presentations, publications and infographics.
COVID-19 大流行凸显了及时更新常规疫苗接种的重要性。在整个大流行期间，加拿大的许多常规疫苗接种计划被暂停或取消，包括学校免疫计划（SBIP）。这导致许多可通过疫苗预防的疾病的覆盖率下降。虽然其他省份已经描述了大流行对 SBIP 的影响，但在加拿大海洋地区（即新斯科舍省、新不伦瑞克省和爱德华王子岛）的影响尚未被了解。我们旨在通过以下方式确定这些计划在加拿大海洋地区是如何受到 COVID-19 及相关公共卫生措施的影响的：（1）识别和描述常规和临时补种计划；（2）通过访谈探索利益相关者对 SBIP 的看法；（3）与利益相关者一起设计建议，以解决 SBIP 和疫苗接种覆盖率方面的差距。
本研究将采用顺序、解释性混合方法设计，在研究期间（2022 年 9 月至 2023 年 12 月）解决目标。首先，环境扫描将描述五个学年（2018/2019-2022/2023）期间 SBIP 和疫苗接种覆盖率的变化。研究结果将为与关键利益相关者（如卫生官员、医疗保健提供者、学校官员以及家长和青少年）进行的半结构化访谈提供信息，以探讨 SBIP 的看法以及大流行期间家长对疫苗接种犹豫不决的变化。这些数据将整合到两次利益相关者参与会议中，以设计支持 SBIP 的建议。分析将由行为改变车轮指导，这是一系列补充工具和框架，用于简化公共卫生研究中的行为诊断和分析。
这项研究已获得达尔豪斯大学健康科学研究伦理委员会的批准（参考号：2022-6395）。在参与访谈或利益相关者参与会议之前，将获得参与者的知情同意。研究结果将通过会议演讲、出版物和信息图表进行传播。
