Cochrane corner: Improving vaccination coverage among adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents refer to individuals in the age group 10 to 19 years. Vaccination of people in this age group offers an opportunity to catch-up on vaccinations missed during childhood, boost waning immunity from childhood vaccines, and provide primary immunity with new vaccines. Vaccination coverage among adolescents is suboptimal worldwide, especially in African countries, and it is unclear which interventions could improve the situation. We focus this commentary on a recent Cochrane review that assessed the effects of interventions to increase vaccination coverage among adolescents. The authors conducted a comprehensive search in multiple peer-reviewed and grey literature databases and identified 16 eligible studies, mostly conducted in high-income countries. The most effective interventions for improving adolescent vaccination coverage included: education of adolescents and their parents about the importance of vaccinations; mandatory vaccination, whereby government enacts laws requiring adolescents to be vaccinated as a pre-condition for school enrolment; and providing a complementary package of educational interventions to adolescents and their parents and healthcare workers. Implementing the evidence from this review would improve adolescent vaccination coverage in Africa. However, given that only one eligible study was conducted in an African country, there is need for African researchers to invest on research in this topic.