Boosting vaccination coverage

The University of Washington Population Health Initiative is leading an interdisciplinary research team that is undertaking a study to better understand how countries can realistically improve vaccination coverage, and how such improvement will affect the overall burden of vaccine-preventable diseases in that country.

Specifically, the project seeks to:

• Identify countries of high, medium, and low socio-demographic index that have been most successful at improving immunization rates over the past 10 years.
• Identify the most important factors that have contributed to the improvements in the immunization rate for the best-performing country in the low socio-demographic index group.
• Develop a “vaccine improvement index” based on the relative importance of the factors leading to improved immunization rates.

We anticipate findings from this project will support policymakers to better understand what a country’s vaccination coverage should be, and also where it stands relative to other countries at a similar stage of socio-demographic development. Furthermore, this research will also offer insights into how a country can realistically improve its vaccination coverage, and how that improvement will affect the overall burden of vaccine-preventable diseases.

The UW project team has included faculty, students and staff from College of Engineering, the Information School, School of Medicine and School of Public Health.