Does social deprivation correlate with meningococcal MenACWY, Hib/MenC and 4CMenB/Meningococcal Group B vaccine uptake in Northern Ireland?

BACKGROUND: Several meningococcal vaccines have been recently introduced into the infant and adolescent vaccination schedules in Northern Ireland to promote immunity to Neisseria meningitidis, protecting against meningococcal septicaemia and meningococcal meningitis. Maintained vaccination uptake is vital in securing individual protection as well as herd immunity. Several social factors have been described in influencing vaccine uptake and therefore it was the aim of this study to examine possible correlations between meningococcal vaccine uptake rates and indicators of social deprivation in Northern Ireland. METHODS: Vaccination data was retrieved from the Cover of Vaccination Evaluated Rapidly (COVER) database, for meningococcal vaccines (MenACWY, HiB/MenC & 4CMenB, as well as for MMR vaccine as a non-meningococcal control). Vaccine coverage data assessed included (i). Two doses of MenB by 12 months, (ii). All 3 doses of MenB by 24 months, (iii). HiB/MenC coverage, (iv). MenACWY (Year 12s, for NI) (v). First dose of MMR. Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measures 2017 (NIMDM2017) were examined against 38 indicators in 7 domains. NI HSCT vaccine uptake dataset for each vaccine was correlated with each indicator in the HSCT NIMDM2017 dataset. Regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between vaccine uptake and deprivation indicators and coefficient of variation (R2) was calculated for each of the indicators. R2 values >0.7 were considered significant. RESULTS: For 4CMenB (all 3 doses by 24 Months), HiB/MenC, MenACWY and for MMR, correlation of variation (R2) values > 0.7, were obtained for 17, 16, 0 and 17 social deprivation indicators, respectively. Significant deprivation indicators were (i) the proportion of 18-21 year olds, who have not enrolled in higher education courses at higher or further education establishments, (ii) the proportion of domestic dwellings that are unfit, (iii) the proportion of domestic dwellings with Local Area Problem Scores, (iv) rate of burglary, (v) rate of vehicle crime, (vi) rate of antisocial behaviour incidents (per 1,000 population), (vii) absenteeism at primary schools and (viii) the proportion of the population aged 65 and over living in households whose equivalised income is below 60% of the NI median. CONCLUSIONS: Within the last two decades, incidence of meningococcal disease has been on the decline. The introduction of meningococcal vaccines has contributed to this decrease and uptake of such vaccines should remain a public health priority to maintain the decline in meningococcal disease. Identifying contributing factors to low vaccine uptake, such as, the association between local deprivation and uptake of meningococcal vaccines, should be of public health importance and acknowledged by local governments and policy makers in their efforts to enhance vaccine uptake, both infant and teenage vaccination. There is a clear correlation with educational deprivation measures such as absenteeism and poor educational attainment and reduced vaccine uptake, perhaps through lack of understanding and willingness to vaccinate. This is where the importance of a clear and coherent public health message surrounding meningococcal vaccination should be prioritised, particularly to establish innovative modalities in a multidisciplinary team approach, to reach out to and increase vaccine uptake rates in socially deprived communities in Northern Ireland.

Vaccination terminology: A revised glossary of key terms including lay person's definitions.

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: There has been a paucity of vaccine and vaccine-related definitions within the scientific and medical peer-reviewed literature, particularly with the arrival of COVID-19. Therefore, it was the aim of this commentary to collate definitions to 44 vaccine- and vaccinology-related key terms, from four international and respected sources of information (where available), including (i) the World Health Organisation (WHO), (ii) the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), (iii) The Department of Health, Government of Australia and (iv) the European Union. In addition, it was a further aim to develop a lay person's definition to each of these 44 key terms, to act as a published and citeable reference point for pharmacists and other healthcare professionals, when communicating with patients and other public-facing stakeholders. COMMENT: Definitions are important in health care in order to (i) provide concise insight on a specific topic, (ii) provide a common understanding and (iii) set reference points to allow the adoption of a standard uniform approach. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: The collation of definitions of key vaccine terms was compiled from four respected sources of information. A glossary of 44 key terms was produced to help pharmacists and other healthcare professionals explain such terms professionally, as well as to patient stakeholders in lay person's vocabulary. These lay definitions had superior readability metrics than definitions from any of the four professional sources, indicating their suitability for engagement with patient-facing stakeholders. Understanding the barriers to vaccine uptake is crucial for health professionals and policymakers to achieve improved uptake rates. This commentary has aimed at adding value to healthcare professionals and patients, by providing an up-to-date glossary of several professional definitions, from respected sources, as well as an accompanying lay definition to support the healthcare professional-patient communicative interface. Vaccines have become an important preventative tool, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to help mitigate disease severity and to help control the pandemic locally, nationally and internationally. Accessible and robust definitions help inform the dialogue to achieve this goal and the avoidance of obscurum per obscurius.

Improving meningococcal MenACWY and 4CMenB/meningococcal group B vaccine-related health literacy in patients: Importance of readability of pharmaceutical Patient Leaflets.

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Patient information leaflets (PILs) or Patient Leaflets (PLs) formally accompany dispensed medicines and are intended to provide the patient with information on how to use the medicine safely. To date, there have been no studies that have examined the readability of meningococcal vaccine patient-facing information, including information contained within the vaccine PIL. Given the role of pharmacists in presenting PILs to patients, it was, therefore, the aim of this study to quantitatively analyse the readability of Patient Leaflets, which accompany licensed meningococcal vaccines in the UK and US and to compare PILs to vaccine pharmaceutical manufacturers' summary of product characteristics (SPC), as well as other patient-facing vaccine-related information. METHODS: Five sources of meningococcal vaccine information were examined for the licensed meningococcal vaccines in the UK (Bexsero, Menveo, Menitorix, Trumenba, Nimenrix & NeisVac-C) and in the United States (Bexsero, Menveo, Trumenba, Menactra, Menomune-A/C/Y/W-135, Menquadfi), including as follows: (i) SPC (Electronic Medicines Compendium, UK), (ii) Package Insert (FDA; USA), (iii) Patient Leaflet (Electronic Medicines Compendium, UK), (iv) Vaccine pharmaceutical websites and (v) government web resources. Readability was examined employing 10 readability metrics, including the Flesch Reading Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade level. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The information source with the greatest readability scores was the UK Patient Leaflet, which had a mean Flesch Reading Ease score of 58.1 and a mean Flesch-Kincaid Grade score of 7.3, followed by the US Department of Health & Human Services patient-facing website for vaccines (55.9 & 8, respectively), followed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vaccine Information Statement (47.3 & 9.4, respectively). Pharmaceutical patient-facing websites for meningococcal vaccines had mean scores of 44.6 and 9.9, respectively. When compared with UK Patient Leaflets, pharmaceutical websites were statistically different with poorer readability with both Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level indices (p = 0.02 & p = 0.04, respectively). WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: Pharmaceutical meningococcal vaccine PILs were easily read and had statistically significant good readability scores in comparison with vaccine SPCs and US Package Inserts, pharmaceutical product websites and other government patient-facing meningococcal vaccine information. Preparation of patient-facing materials of a complex topic, such as describing meningococcal vaccines, is difficult to accomplish. Although there is a plurality of sources of information through websites and social media, PILs are one of the few sources that are provided directly to patients. This underpins the potential importance of PILs and the importance of their readability. Adoption of readability calculators and scrutiny of materials for their readability will help authors develop materials with improved understanding for vaccine recipients, potentially leading to improved health literacy and vaccine uptake. Renewed efforts should be sought to promote the information within the PIL, thereby maximizing the value of this resource with vaccine recipients, their carers and family.