Accessibility of vaccination service in children in floating population in 3 counties, Zhejiang, 2010

Objective A survey conducted in 2005 found that only 58% of children in floating population in 3 counties (Beilun in Ningbo, Jiashan in Jiaxing and Shangyu in Shaoxing) were recorded in EPI information system, then the intervention was made in the 3 counties by Zhejiang provincial CDC and NUICEF. In April 2010,a survey was conducted to evaluate the intervention effect. Methods By two-stage cluster sampling with probability proportional to size (PPS), 30 villages were sampled from each county and 2 groups were randomly selected from each village, and all the 0-3 years old children in floating population in these groups were surveyed to know whether they had been recorded in EPI information system and how their parents were informed of vaccination service, the weighted proportions of recorded and vaccinated children and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results Totally 455 children were surveyed, among them 448 (98.7%) had been recorded in the EPI information system (95% CI: 98.4%-98.9%), 430 (96.4%) had received one vaccination at least (95% CI: 95.7%-96.9%) and the vaccination of 305 children (77.7%) were due to their parents being informed. The information of vaccination service was mainly from maternity hospitals (n=165, 47%), floating population management offices (n=53, 30%), village or community committee staff (n=70, 22%) and fellow villagers (n=26, 7%). Conclusion The accessibility of vaccination service in floating population was greatly improved by the intervention activity in the 3 counties. It is recommended that the vaccination management model in floating population in the 3 counties could be spread in the province.