Vaccination coverage of adolescents: Results of a 3-years defense and citizenship day-based survey, Îlle-et-Vilaine, France, 2015–2017

Abstract

Introduction Vaccination coverage of adolescents is not routinely measured. Every French adolescent aged between 16 and 18 years must take part in the Defense and Citizenship Day (French acronym JDC). We aimed to assess vaccination coverage among young adults for hepatitis B, group C meningococcus meningitis, human papillomavirus (HPV) and measles. We also aimed to assess the proportion of adolescents who received the pertussis booster between the age of 11 and 13 years. Methods The survey took place one week per year between 2015 and 2017 at the JDC center of Rennes, France. Vaccination coverage data was collected on site from the adolescents’ health records. We collected the number of doses received and the dates of administration for each type of vaccine. A properly vaccinated adolescent was defined as having received the right number of doses according to the vaccination schedule. Results for adolescents born in 1997, 1998 and 1999 are presented. Results A total of 1269 adolescents attended the JDC Day: 1086 (85.6%) had brought their health record or an equivalent document. Among them, 956 were born between 1997 and 1999. Vaccination coverage increased according to birth cohort to reach for those born in 1999: 96.7% [94.0–98.4] for measles, 46.5% [40.8–52.3] for group C meningococcus meningitis, 48.2% [42.4–54.0] for hepatitis B and 34.4% [27.0–42.4] for HPV among girls. Among those born in 1999, 82.4% [77.6–86.5] received a dose of the pertussis vaccine between 11 and 13 years of age. Conclusion This population-based vaccine coverage study provides information about a little studied population group in France. The method used minimizes recruitment and classification bias. An increase of the vaccine coverage through studied birth cohorts (1997–1999) was observed. Vaccine coverage against measles exceeds the WHO recommendation of 95%. However, it is insufficient for other vaccines. These results will help public health authorities to target specific health promotion vaccination efforts. As vaccine coverage is difficult to estimate in adolescents, this survey is a valuable tool to follow this population and could be extended to other French districts.