More Than 1 in 6 Toddlers Don’t Complete Early Childhood Vaccine Series

Most early childhood immunizations require 3-4 doses to achieve optimal protection, which appears to be a factor in why vaccine coverage in early childhood remains below national goals—incomplete or partial immunization. A new study, “Failure to complete multi-dose vaccine series in early childhood,” in the August 2023 Pediatrics (published online July 25), found that many young children initiate but don’t complete these immunization series, which leaves them—and communities—vulnerable to disease outbreaks and more severe illness. Researchers examined data from the 2019 National Immunization Survey-Child evaluating immunization rates of 16,365 children, ages 19-35 months, for the combined 7-vaccine series that protects toddlers from diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, pneumococcal infections, Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, polio, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella. Only 72.9% of the toddlers completed the combined 7-vaccine series, and 17.2%, one in every six toddlers, initiated but did not complete the one or multiple multi-dose vaccine series. Approximately 1.1% of children were completely unvaccinated for the combined 7-vaccine series, and approximately 9.9% had not initiated one or more of the seven vaccinations. Researchers found that there were a number of factors involved in why some children initiated but didn’t complete the vaccine series. The factors include: if the family moved across state lines, the number of children in the household, lack of health insurance. Black children had greater odds risk of incomplete vaccination. Children living in lower-income households and in rented homes were 25-30% more likely to fail to complete the multi-dose vaccine series. Study authors concluded that, renewed efforts should be made to assist parents with vaccine reminders and other initiatives to address the economic barriers and racial disparities in early-childhood vaccine series completion rates.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit www.aap.org and follow us on Twitter @AmerAcadPeds