Increasing Appropriate Vaccination: Provider Education When Used Alone

Community Preventive Services Taskforce Task Force Finding and Rationale Statement (2015)

The Community Guide - N/A

Go to publication

Evidence Categories

• Care setting: Not described
• Population group: Not described
• Intervention: Provider education
• Outcome: Uptake of vaccinations

Type of Evidence

Systematic Review

Aims

"This report aimed to determine if provider education interventions used alone improve vaccination rates."

Findings

The authors state:

"This Task Force finding is based on evidence from a Community Guide systematic review completed in 2010 (5 studies with 6 study arms, search period 1980-2009) combined with more recent evidence (1 study, search period 2009-2012). Based on the combined evidence, the Task Force reaffirms its finding of insufficient effectiveness. The Task Force review included six studies that provided seven measurements of change in vaccination rates. The overall median absolute increase in vaccination rates was 4 percentage points (interquartile interval: 2 to 4 percentage points), however none of the study effect estimates were statistically significant, and results were inconsistent across the small body of evidence."

Conclusions

The authors state:

"The Community Preventive Services Task Force finds insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of provider education interventions when implemented alone in improving vaccination rates or reducing vaccine-preventable illness. Evidence is considered insufficient because the six identified studies observed changes in vaccination rates that were both small in magnitude and inconsistent."