Fewer Disparities Seen in Children’s Vaccination Rates
The overall vaccination rate among black children ages 19 months to 35 months last year for the first time equaled rates among white, Asian and Hispanic children in the same age group, according to a CDC report released Thursday, the AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
For the report, researchers examined the results of an annual random-digit-dialed telephone survey, which had a 65% response rate, and reviewed vaccination records for the 17,500 children from households that participated. According to the report, among black, white, Asian and Hispanic children, about 76% to 79% received the complete recommended series of vaccinations against whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type B.
The report finds that Massachusetts children had the highest overall vaccination rate at about 91% and that Vermont children had the lowest rate at about 63%.
According to the AP/Post-Intelligencer, "racial disparities in vaccination rates have existed for decades," but they "have been narrowing significantly in the past five or six years," in part because of Vaccines for Children, a program that the federal government established in 1994 to cover the cost of vaccinations for low-income children (Stobbe, AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/14).