Towards Equity in Immunization: The Immunization Reminders Project

High rates of vaccine coverage among populations, such as children, are

important for immunizations to provide herd immunity.a

In 2006, we found

statistically significant differences (i.e., disparities) in immunization coverage

rates between two-year-old children in the city of Saskatoon based on where they

lived.

A grant was obtained from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), in

partnership with Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC), in early 2007 to fund an

intervention to increase immunization coverage rates among young children. The

intervention, the ‘immunization reminders project’, involves contacting the

parents/guardians of 14-month-olds and 20-months olds in the Saskatoon Health

Region (SHR) who are behind in their immunizations.

Since 2007, other interventions aimed at increasing childhood immunization

coverage rates have been introduced in SHR (e.g., SHR’s Building Health Equity

Program). However, this report focuses only the effectiveness of the

‘immunization reminders project’.