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Efficient burdens decrease nonmedical exemption rates: A cross-county comparison of Michigan's vaccination waiver education efforts.

ABSTRACT: Michigan's introduction of mandatory counseling for nonmedical exemptions was associated with decreased nonmedical exemption rates. However, while each of Michigan's 45 local health departments made its own decisions about how to conduct immunization counseling, differences in the burdensomeness of counseling programs was not associated with greater or lesser changes in exemption rates. Data from a survey of Michigan local health departments (online, October 2015), epidemiological data from Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services (online, various dates), and social and economic data from the American Community Survey (online, various dates) were used in models explaining change in county-level nonmedical exemption rates. Counties that first required an education session after the December 2014 rule change had a 30% greater reduction in their nonmedical exemption rates for 2015 than did counties that already required education sessions. Michigan's experience with vaccination waiver education suggests that imposing burdens on nonmedical waiver applicants decreases nonmedical waiver rates. It also indicates there may be a burden threshold beyond which incremental increases in inconvenience do not further reduce exemption rates. Thus, in a context of hyper-politicization and austerity, health departments may be wise to avoid implementing additionally burdensome processes that are politically or economically expensive to administer.

SUBMITTER: Navin MC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6994299 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Efficient burdens decrease nonmedical exemption rates: A cross-county comparison of Michigan's vaccination waiver education efforts.

Navin Mark C MC Largent Mark A MA McCright Aaron M AM

Preventive medicine reports 20200118

Michigan's introduction of mandatory counseling for nonmedical exemptions was associated with decreased nonmedical exemption rates. However, while each of Michigan's 45 local health departments made its own decisions about how to conduct immunization counseling, differences in the burdensomeness of counseling programs was not associated with greater or lesser changes in exemption rates. Data from a survey of Michigan local health departments (online, October 2015), epidemiological data from Mich ...[more]

PMID: 32021760

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Project description:ImportanceAlthough New York State (NYS) recently adopted legislation eliminating nonmedical vaccination exemption options from school-entry requirements, the implications of the law for school vaccine coverage and medical vaccine exemption uptake have not been examined.ObjectiveTo evaluate the implications of the repeal of school-entry nonmedical vaccination exemptions for vaccine coverage and medical exemption uptake at NYS schools outside of New York City (NYC).Design, setting, and participantsThis cohort study had an interrupted time-series design and used generalized estimating equation models to examine longitudinal school immunization compliance data from the 2012 to 2013 through 2021 to 2022 school years. The cohort comprised NYS public and nonpublic schools, excluding NYC schools, with any students enrolled in kindergarten to 12th grade. Eligible schools had enrollment and immunization data before and after the implementation of the Senate Bill 2994A legislation. Data analyses were conducted in July 2023.ExposureSenate Bill 2994A was passed in June 2019, eliminating school-entry nonmedical vaccination exemptions. Since compliance with the law was evaluated for most students during the next school year, the 2019 to 2020 school year was considered to be the law's effective date.Main outcomes and measuresThe primary outcomes were school vaccine coverage (defined as the percentage of students at each school who completed grade-appropriate requirements for all required vaccines) and medical exemption uptake (defined as the percentage of students at each school who received a medical exemption).ResultsAmong the 3821 eligible schools, 3632 (95.1%) were included in the analysis, representing 2794 (96.9% of eligible) public schools and 838 (89.2% of eligible) nonpublic schools. The implementation of Senate Bill 2994A was associated with absolute increases in mean vaccine coverage of 5.5% (95% CI, 4.5%-6.6%) among nonpublic schools and 0.9% (95% CI, 0.7%-1.1%) among public schools, with additional annual increases in vaccine coverage observed through the 2021 to 2022 school year. The law's implementation was also associated with a 0.1% (95% CI, 0.0%-0.1%) mean absolute decrease in medical vaccination exemption uptake at both public and nonpublic schools, and small but significant mean annual decreases in medical vaccination exemptions (0.02%; 95% CI, 0.01%-0.03%) through the end of the study period.Conclusions and relevanceResults of this cohort study suggested that repeal of school-entry nonmedical vaccination exemptions was associated with increased vaccine coverage at NYS schools outside of NYC. Coverage gains were not replaced by increases in medical vaccination exemptions.

Project description:Infectious disease burdens vary from country to country and year to year due to ecological and economic drivers. Recently, Murray et al. (Murray CJ et al 2012 Lancet380, 2197-2223. (doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61689-4)) estimated country-level morbidity and mortality associated with a variety of factors, including infectious diseases, for the years 1990 and 2010. Unlike other databases that report disease prevalence or count outbreaks per country, Murray et al. report health impacts in per-person disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), allowing comparison across diseases with lethal and sublethal health effects. We investigated the spatial and temporal relationships between DALYs lost to infectious disease and potential demographic, economic, environmental and biotic drivers, for the 60 intermediate-sized countries where data were available and comparable. Most drivers had unique associations with each disease. For example, temperature was positively associated with some diseases and negatively associated with others, perhaps due to differences in disease agent thermal optima, transmission modes and host species identities. Biodiverse countries tended to have high disease burdens, consistent with the expectation that high diversity of potential hosts should support high disease transmission. Contrary to the dilution effect hypothesis, increases in biodiversity over time were not correlated with improvements in human health, and increases in forestation over time were actually associated with increased disease burden. Urbanization and wealth were associated with lower burdens for many diseases, a pattern that could arise from increased access to sanitation and healthcare in cities and increased investment in healthcare. The importance of urbanization and wealth helps to explain why most infectious diseases have become less burdensome over the past three decades, and points to possible levers for further progress in improving global public health.This article is part of the themed issue 'Conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease: scientific evidence and policy implications'.

Project description:BackgroundSocial vulnerability indices were created to measure resiliency to environmental disasters based on socioeconomic and population characteristics of discrete geographic regions. They are composed of multiple validated constructs that can also potentially identify geographically vulnerable populations after injury. Our objective was to determine if these indices correlate with injury fatality rates in the US.MethodsWe evaluated three social vulnerability indices: The Hazards & Vulnerability Research Institute's Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI), the Center for Disease Control's Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), and the Economic Innovation Group's Distressed Community Index (DCI). We analyzed SVI subindices and common individual census variables as indicators of socioeconomic status. Outcomes included age-adjusted county-level overall, firearm, and motor vehicle collision deaths per 100,000 population. Linear regression determined the association of injury fatality rates with the SoVI, SVI, and DCI. Bivariate choropleth mapping identified geographic variation and spatial autocorrelation of overall fatality, SoVI, and DCI.ResultsA total of 3,137 US counties were included. Only 24.6% of counties fell into the same vulnerability quintile for all three indices. Despite this, all indices were associated with increasing fatality rates for overall, firearm, and motor vehicle collision fatality. The DCI performed best by model fit, explanation of variance, and diagnostic performance on overall injury fatality. There is significant geographic variation in SoVI, DCI, and injury fatality rates at the county level across the United States, with moderate spatial autocorrelation of SoVI (Moran's I, 0.35; p < 0.01) and high autocorrelation of injury fatality rates (Moran's I, 0.77; p < 0.01) and DCI (Moran's I, 0.53; p < 0.01).ConclusionWhile the indices contribute unique information, higher social vulnerability is associated with higher injury fatality across all indices. These indices may be useful in the epidemiologic and geographic assessment of injury-related fatality rates. Further study is warranted to determine if these indices outperform traditional measures of socioeconomic status and related constructs used in trauma research.Level of evidenceEpidemiological, level IV.

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Efficient burdens decrease nonmedical exemption rates: A cross-county comparison of Michigan's vaccination waiver education efforts.

Publications

Efficient burdens decrease nonmedical exemption rates: A cross-county comparison of Michigan's vaccination waiver education efforts.

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