BMC Public Health
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpublichealth/content
(Accessed 12 December 2015)

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Research article
The use of reimbursement data for timely monitoring of vaccination coverage: the example of human papillomavirus vaccine following public concerns about vaccine safety
Laure Fonteneau, Marine Ragot, Isabelle Parent du Châtelet, Jean-Paul Guthmann, Daniel Lévy-Bruhl BMC Public Health 2015, 1
Abstract
Background
Since 2011 public concerns about Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination safety and efficacy arose in France. We explored the relevance of using vaccines reimbursement data to assess the impact of those public concerns on vaccination coverage.
Methods
We used the Permanent Sample of Beneficiaries which was, at the time of the study, a representative sample of 1/97 th health insurance beneficiaries of the main Social Security scheme, the General Health Insurance Scheme, covering approximately 77 % of the French resident population. We estimated HPV vaccination coverage among girls born between 1995 and 1999 at their 15th, 16th and 17th birthday.
Results
The coverage for complete vaccination among 16 years old girls decreased from 26.5 % in the first semester of 2011 to 18.6 % in the first semester of 2014.
Conclusions
HPV vaccination coverage was already low in 2011 and continued to decrease thereafter. Vaccines reimbursement data allowed us to reactively monitor the impact of the controversy on vaccination coverage and design counteracting measures.

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Research article
Vaccination decision-making of immigrant parents in the Netherlands; a focus group study
Irene Harmsen, Helien Bos, Robert Ruiter, Theo Paulussen, Gerjo Kok, Hester de Melker, Liesbeth Mollema
BMC Public Health 2015, 1
Abstract
Background
Although the vaccination coverage in most high income countries is high, variations in coverage rates on the national level among different ethnic backgrounds are reported. A qualitative study was performed to explore factors that influence decision-making among parents with different ethnic backgrounds in the Netherlands.
Methods
Six focus groups were conducted with 33 mothers of Moroccan, Turkish and other ethnic backgrounds with at least one child aged 0–4 years. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Results
Parents had a positive attitude towards childhood vaccination and a high confidence in the advices of Child Vaccine Providers (CVPs). Vaccinating their children was perceived as self-evident and important. Parents do perceive a language barrier in understanding the provided NIP-information, and they had a need for more NIP- information, particularly about the targeted diseases. Another barrier parents perceived was the distance to the Child Welfare Center (CWC), especially when the weather was bad and when they had no access to a car.
Conclusion
More information about targeted diseases and complete information regarding benefits and drawbacks of the NIP should be provided to the parents. To fulfill parents’ information needs, NIP information meetings can be organized at CWCs in different languages. Providing NIP information material in Turkish, Arabic and Berber language with easy access is also recommended. Providing information tailored to these parents’ needs is important to sustain high vaccination participation, and to ensure acceptance of future vaccinations.