Assessment of the comprehensiveness of paediatric national immunisation programmes in Europe: expert validation and future perspectives

ABSTRACT

Background

The breadth of protection of National Immunisation Programmes (NIPs) across Europe varies, however, this has not been assessed within published literature. Therefore, a framework was developed to assess the comprehensiveness of pediatric NIPs in Europe. This study aimed to validate and further develop criteria used to cluster countries into three tiers.

Research design and methods

Independent Europe-based experts (n = 23) in the field of pediatric vaccination were invited to participate in a double-blinded modified Delphi panel, with two online survey rounds and a virtual consensus meeting. Consensus was defined as ≥ 80% of experts rating their agreement/disagreement on a 9-point Likert scale.

Results

The number of preventable diseases covered by an NIP, simplification of the vaccination calendar, strengthened protection by increasing serotype, degree of funding and epidemiological factors were considered key concepts for consideration of the comprehensiveness of pediatric NIPs in Europe. Experts highlighted that the framework should be extended to include adolescent vaccines and populations up to 18 years of age. Consensus regarding further amendments to the framework was also reached.

Conclusions

This Delphi panel validated a framework to assess the comprehensiveness of European NIPs. The framework can be used to facilitate discussions to help countries improve and expand the breadth of protection provided by their NIP.

KEYWORDS:

• Vaccination
• Europe
• immunization
• programmes
• assessment
• comprehensiveness

Declaration of interest

U Sabale is an employee of MSD Lithuania and owns stock in Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, U.S.A., V Laigle is an employee of MSD France and owns stock in Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, U.S.A., J Murtagh is an employee of MSD Ireland and owns stock in Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, U.S.A.. Research execution was delivered by J Cochrane, D Riley, R Perry and L Heron who were employed by AV PROVE at the time this research was commissioned by MSD. P Bonanni, J Antonio Navarro Alonso and J Eskola were reimbursed for serving as steering committee members. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or material discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

Study design and conceptualization: Ugne Sabale, Valerie Laigle, Janice Murtagh, Paolo Bonanni, Jose Antonio Navarro Alonso, Juhani Eskola, Louise Heron, Richard Perry, Danielle Riley, James Cochrane; b. Acquisition of data: Ugne Sabale, Valerie Laigle, Janice Murtagh, Louise Heron, Richard Perry, Danielle Riley, James Cochrane; c. Analysis and interpretation of data: Ugne Sabale, Valerie Laigle, Janice Murtagh, Louise Heron, Richard Perry, Danielle Riley, James Cochrane. Drafting the manuscript: Ugne Sabale, Valerie Laigle, Janice Murtagh, Louise Heron, Richard Perry, Danielle Riley, James Cochrane; b. Revising for intellectual content: Ugne Sabale, Valerie Laigle, Janice Murtagh, Paolo Bonanni, Jose Antonio Navarro Alonso, Juhani Eskola, Louise Heron, Richard Perry, Danielle Riley, James Cochrane. Final approval of the completed manuscript: Ugne Sabale, Valerie Laigle, Janice Murtagh, Paolo Bonanni, Jose Antonio Navarro Alonso, Juhani Eskola, Louise Heron, Richard Perry, Danielle Riley, James Cochrane.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the researchers at Adept Field Solutions, with special thanks to Jessica McGuinness as the project manager, who facilitated the fieldwork for the study.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14760584.2024.2324939

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co, Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA. The independent (non-sponsor affiliated) experts were reimbursed for their time based on fair market value.