How accurately does the Australian Immunisation Register identify children overdue for vaccine doses? A national cross-sectional study

Dalton, Lauren; Meder, Kelley; Beard, Frank; Dey, Aditi; Hull, Brynley P; Macartney, Kristine; McIntyre, Peter B.

doi:10.33321/cdi.2022.46.10

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Everyone in Australia who holds a Medicare card or receives a vaccine, should have a record within the AIR. The accuracy and completeness of data reported in AIR have been previously assessed and found to be high [ 10 ], and likely improved since a law requiring providers to upload vaccination records to the AIR within 10 days of vaccine administration came into effect on 1 July 2021 [ 11 – 13 ]. At the time of writing, access to the AIR data is being transitioned from downloaded files to an automated feed.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using data linkage to monitor COVID-19 vaccination

Eitelhuber¹,

Ngeh²,

Bloomfield

et al. 2022

IJPDS

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The COVID-19 Vaccination Linked Data Repository (CVLDR) was established in 2021 to assist with the implementation and management of the COVID-19 vaccination program in the State of Western Australia (WA). The CVLDR contains a number of datasets including the Australian Immunisation Register, hospital admissions, emergency department attendances, notifiable infectious disease, and laboratory data. Datasets in the CVLDR are linked using a probabilistic method at the WA Department of Health. Quality assurance mechanisms have been established to identify and mitigate potential errors in the linkage. Each of the datasets has varying degrees of data quality and completeness, however most are of high standard, underpinned by legislation. The linking of the datasets within the CVLDR has allowed for increased public health utility in the immunisation program including the areas of vaccine safety, effectiveness, and coverage.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using data linkage to monitor COVID-19 vaccination

Eitelhuber¹,

Ngeh²,

Bloomfield

et al. 2022

IJPDS

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“…AIR data are increasingly being used to assess vaccination rates 10 and assist public health practitioners to target interventions to improve these rates. The importance of having a universal register with high data quality and completeness is becoming increasingly important in settings where vaccination rates are high because the need for highly focused approaches to encourage the last few per cent of unvaccinated children to be immunised is vital.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the Australian Immunisation Register to support general practices to improve childhood vaccination rates

Nyinawingeri,

Staff,

Wedd

et al. 2024

Aust J Gen Pract

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Background and objectiveStrategies to improve vaccination rates have been implemented with considerable benefits. The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of a supported general practice intervention to 'catch up' overdue children. MethodsBetween 2017 and 2018, a public health nurse visited 23 general practices with high numbers of overdue children to assist staff identify and follow up truly overdue children. A comparison group consisted of a random sample of overdue children from other practices. The intervention was assessed by reviewing Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) records in 2019. ResultsAlthough the intervention group had a significantly higher proportion of children who had their AIR records corrected for vaccines administered prior to the initial practice visit, the intervention did not result in higher vaccination rates. DiscussionSupport to general practices can improve vaccination data on the AIR; however, simple reminders alone are unlikely to increase vaccination rates for truly overdue children.IMMUNISATION is one of the core functions of public authorities in Australia. Similar to other public health units in New South Wales (NSW), routine work of the immunisation team in the Northern Sydney Public Health Unit includes providing general advice and information on adult and childhood immunisation to healthcare providers and members of the public, following up reports of adverse reactions to vaccinations, facilitating the neonatal hepatitis B program, providing mandatory education to immunisation providers and delivering the NSW Health school-based vaccination program. 1,2 The Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) is aligned with the Sydney North Primary Health Network (PHN) and provides health services for approximately 950,000 residents in a metropolitan setting.Following the introduction of mandatory reporting of vaccinations to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR), 3 immunisation reports are provided to public health authorities to assess local immunisation coverage. 4 These reports are provided to the relevant authorities by the Chief Executive Medicare under the Health Insurance Act 1973 following its Amendment Bill 1996. The reports identify individual children who are overdue for at least one of their childhood immunisations in order to monitor and improve vaccination rates.The rate of fully immunised children aged five years is a population health indicator for PHNs. 5 Immunisation coverage assessment across all levels, including PHNs, relies on the accuracy of AIR data. 6 Previous studies at national and state levels [6][7][8][9] have identified an underestimate of actual vaccination rates when comparing AIR reports and data from individual and provider surveys. Major problems impacting AIR data have been documented and include issues associated with automated data transmission from practice software directly to the AIR, failure to capture data on overseas-vaccinated children and data entry errors. 10 A recent study in NSW concluded that under-report...

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“…Fourth, vaccination status was obtained from a population-based, whole-of-life, mandatory national immunization register. AIR data are generally considered to be of good quality ( 16 ), and there was a strong incentive for persons to be sure that their COVID-19 vaccination record was accurate and up to date because activities such as employment and attending public venues were dependent on vaccination status ( 17 ). Last, the pandemic experience in WA enabled assessment of VE in a SARS-CoV-2 infection–naive cohort, which eliminated potential interference from non–vaccine-derived prior immunity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Effectiveness against Omicron Variant in Infection-Naive Population, Australia, 2022

Bloomfield¹,

Ngeh²,

Cadby³

et al. 2023

Emerg. Infect. Dis.

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SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Western Australia, Australia, was negligible until a wave of Omicron variant infections emerged in February 2022, when >90% of adults had been vaccinated. This unique pandemic experience enabled assessment of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness (VE) without potential interference from background immunity from prior infection. We matched 188,950 persons who had a positive PCR test result during February–May 2022 to negative controls by age, week of test, and other possible confounders. Overall, 3-dose VE was 42.0% against infection and 81.7% against hospitalization or death. A primary series of 2 viral-vectored vaccines followed by an mRNA booster provided significantly longer protection against infection >60 days after vaccination than a 3-dose series of mRNA vaccine. In a population free from non–vaccine-derived background immunity, vaccines against the ancestral spike protein were ≈80% effective for preventing serious outcomes from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

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How accurately does the Australian Immunisation Register identify children overdue for vaccine doses? A national cross-sectional study

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Using data linkage to monitor COVID-19 vaccination

Using data linkage to monitor COVID-19 vaccination

Using the Australian Immunisation Register to support general practices to improve childhood vaccination rates

SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Effectiveness against Omicron Variant in Infection-Naive Population, Australia, 2022

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