Tracking Demographic Movements and Immunization Status to Improve Children’s Access to Immunization: Field-Based Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Countries’ Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) contribute to the reduction of mortality and morbidity, but access to these vaccines remains limited in most low-income countries. OBJECTIVE: We aim to assess whether involving community volunteers (CVs) to track children’s vaccination status and demographic movements and using recorded data to plan catch-up immunization sessions can improve children’s vaccination timeliness, completeness, and coverage. METHODS: This was a field-based randomized controlled trial and communities of the Foumban health district in West Cameroon were allocated to intervention or control groups. In the intervention group, a CV per community was trained to visit households monthly for a year to assess and record in a register, details of EPI-targeted children, their demographic movements and immunization status. The scanned recorded pages were sent to the health center immunization team through WhatsApp and used to organize monthly community catch-up immunization sessions. In the control group, EPI vaccination sessions were routinely conducted. Surveys were conducted at 6 and 12 months from the beginning of the intervention in both study groups to assess and compare immunization timeliness, coverage, and completeness. RESULTS: Overall, 30 buildings per cluster were surveyed at midline and endline. Of the 633 and 729 visited households in the intervention group at midline and endline, 630 (99.5%) and 718 (98.4%), respectively, consented to participate. In the control group, 507 and 651 households were visited and 505 (99.6%) and 636 (97.7%), respectively, consented to participate. At 12 months intervention, the month one timeliness of bacille Calmette–Guerin (BCG) vaccine did not increase in the intervention group compared with the control group for the age groups 0-11 months (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.1, 95% CI 0.7-1.8) and 0-59 months (aOR 1.1, 95% CI 0.9-1.4), and significantly increased for the first-year BCG vaccine administration for the age group 0-23 months (aOR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1-2.2). The coverage of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus and hepatitis B+Hemophilus influenzae type B (DPT-Hi +Hb) dose 3 (aOR 2.0, 95% CI 1.5-2.7) and of DPT-Hi+Hb dose 1 (aOR 1.8, 95% CI 1.4-2.4) vaccines increased significantly in the intervention group compared with the control group in the age groups 12-59 months and 12-23 months, respectively. Specific (DPT-Hi+Hb dose 1 to DPT-Hi+Hb dose 3: aOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.4-2.6) and general (BCG to measles: aOR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1-2.1) vaccine completeness increased significantly in the intervention group compared with the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support that involving CVs to track children’s vaccination status and demographic movements and using recorded data to plan catch-up immunization sessions improve children’s vaccination timeliness, completeness, and coverage. This strategy should be adopted to improve access to vaccination for EPI target populations and the consistency verified in other contexts. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Pan African Clinical Trials Registry PACTR201808527428720; https://pactr.samrc.ac.za/TrialDisplay.aspx?TrialID=3548