The National Immunization Surveys (NIS) are a group of telephone surveys used to monitor vaccination coverage among children 19-35 months, teens 13-17 years, and influenza vaccinations for children 6 months to 17 years. NIS Child Survey results have shown long-standing disparities in vaccination coverage among children 19-35 months living below the poverty level compared to children living at or above the poverty level.
The purpose of this program is to gain a better understanding from the parents/guardians of young children about the factors contributing to vaccination coverage disparities observed between young children living below the poverty level and those living at or above the poverty level. These factors may include challenges accessing vaccination services, receiving lower quality vaccination services, Medicaid policy-related barriers, knowledge/attitudes/beliefs toward vaccination, and competing priorities.
To address these hypotheses, this program seeks to collect information directly from parents and families about their experience with accessing vaccination services, the quality of vaccination services received, Medicaid policy-related barriers they may face, their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs toward vaccination, and competing priorities.
This program supports the following Healthy People 2020 focus areas:
- IID-7 Achieve and maintain effective vaccination coverage levels for universally recommended vaccines among young children (IID-7.1 – IID-7.10).
- IID-8 Increase the percentage of children aged 19 to 35 months who receive the recommended doses of DTaP, polio, MMR, Hib, hepatitis B, varicella and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV).
- IID-9 Decrease the percentage of children in the United States who receive zero (0) doses of recommended vaccines by age 19 to 35 months.