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Universally Recommended Vaccinations: Home Visits to Increase Vaccination Rates

Home visits intended to increase vaccination rates:

  • Provide vaccinations to clients in their homes, or
  • Promote recommended vaccinations with referral to available immunization services

Home visits may be conducted by either vaccination providers, such as nurses, or other providers, such as social workers. Visits generally include an assessment of client vaccination status and a brief discussion of the importance of the indicated immunizations.

The intervention may be directed to:

  • All clients in a designated population, such as low-income single mothers, or
  • Only those clients who have been unresponsive to previous intervention efforts, such as client reminder and recall systems

Home visits may be the primary or sole intervention or one component of a larger healthcare system or community-based program to increase vaccination rates.

Summary of Task Force Recommendations & Findings

The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends home visits based on strong evidence of their effectiveness in increasing vaccination rates.

However, the Task Force also notes that home visits can be resource-intensive and costly relative to other options for increasing vaccination rates. Evidence on effectiveness was considered strong based on a body of evidence that included studies of home visits delivered to all clients or only to those unresponsive to other interventions, home visits focused on vaccination alone or in combination with other health concerns, and home visits that provided vaccinations on-site or referred clients to vaccination services outside the home.

Task Force Finding & Rationale Statement

 

The Task Force recommendation was made in March 2009. It is based on evidence from a previously completed review (search period 1980-1997) and an updated review (search period 1997-2009). Updates of reviews are conducted to incorporate more recent evidence.

These reviews were conducted on behalf of the Task Force by a team of specialists in systematic review methods, and in research, practice and policy related to vaccinations to prevent diseases. Please subscribe External Web Site Icon to be notified as new materials on this topic become available.

Learn more about the original review and Task Force finding in the Vaccinations to Prevent Diseases section of our publications page.

Publications

The findings and results of this systematic review have not been published. Read other Community Guide publications about Vaccinations to Prevent Diseases in our library, including articles about the previous review. You may also subscribe to be notified as new materials on this topic become available.

 



Disclaimer

The findings and conclusions on this page are those of the Community Preventive Services Task Force and do not necessarily represent those of CDC.

Sample Citation

The content of publications of the Guide to Community Preventive Services is in the public domain. Citation as to source, however, is appreciated. Sample citation: Guide to Community Preventive Services. Universally recommended vaccinations: home visits to increase vaccination rates (abbreviated). www.thecommunityguide.org/vaccines/universally/homevisits.html. Last updated: MM/DD/YYYY.

Review completed: March 2009