Article type
Year
Abstract
Background:
One of the first countries to adopt the World Health Organization's expanded immunization programme was India. India has adopted various strategies for the implementation of the same. The Indian health ministry has launched various programmes for increasing childhood immunization. Pulse polio is an example of the work done in this field. The Indian government claims approximately 75% of children complete DPT 3 (vaccination for diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus).
Objectives:
To identify studies on the various implementation programmes for immunization coverage launched in India.
Methods:
A comprehensive literature search of the databases The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE, and PubMed for studies on childhood immunization was done for the purpose of doing a interventional review to identify a strategy suitable for improving childhood immunization coverage. The retrieved search was then screened for any available studies on implementation strategies for childhood immunization. The studies were then assessed by authors for their quality based on the type of studies, study setting, strategy involved, randomization, allocation concealment, blinding (participants and personnel), incomplete outcome data and selective reporting.
Results:
The search results revealed 2803 studies, 53 of which the authors found to be relevant to the topic and for which they retrieved the full text. Out of these 53 studies discussing various strategies to improve childhood immunization, only five studies were from India. Only one of these five studies was a randomized controlled trial. The rest of the studies were observational and survey studies. The only randomized trial, discussed giving incentives for completion of immunization and showed that there was significant increase in the immunization coverage (OR 9.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.19 to 30.55).
Conclusions:
India has implemented lots of strategies that have shown an increase in immunization coverage of the country, but high quality evidence in the form of a randomized controlled trial is lacking.
Acknowledgement: Indian Council of Medical Research
One of the first countries to adopt the World Health Organization's expanded immunization programme was India. India has adopted various strategies for the implementation of the same. The Indian health ministry has launched various programmes for increasing childhood immunization. Pulse polio is an example of the work done in this field. The Indian government claims approximately 75% of children complete DPT 3 (vaccination for diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus).
Objectives:
To identify studies on the various implementation programmes for immunization coverage launched in India.
Methods:
A comprehensive literature search of the databases The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE, and PubMed for studies on childhood immunization was done for the purpose of doing a interventional review to identify a strategy suitable for improving childhood immunization coverage. The retrieved search was then screened for any available studies on implementation strategies for childhood immunization. The studies were then assessed by authors for their quality based on the type of studies, study setting, strategy involved, randomization, allocation concealment, blinding (participants and personnel), incomplete outcome data and selective reporting.
Results:
The search results revealed 2803 studies, 53 of which the authors found to be relevant to the topic and for which they retrieved the full text. Out of these 53 studies discussing various strategies to improve childhood immunization, only five studies were from India. Only one of these five studies was a randomized controlled trial. The rest of the studies were observational and survey studies. The only randomized trial, discussed giving incentives for completion of immunization and showed that there was significant increase in the immunization coverage (OR 9.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.19 to 30.55).
Conclusions:
India has implemented lots of strategies that have shown an increase in immunization coverage of the country, but high quality evidence in the form of a randomized controlled trial is lacking.
Acknowledgement: Indian Council of Medical Research