An Examination of Employee Immunization Policies Among Colorado Child Care Providers

Elizabeth J Dullea; Elizabeth K Abbott; Sean T O'Leary; Stephanie Wasserman; Jessica R Cataldi

doi:10.1093/jpids/piab062

An Examination of Employee Immunization Policies Among Colorado Child Care Providers

J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2021 Jul 28:piab062. doi: 10.1093/jpids/piab062. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Elizabeth J Dullea¹, Elizabeth K Abbott¹, Sean T O'Leary^{2

3}, Stephanie Wasserman¹, Jessica R Cataldi^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Immunize Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
² Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
³ Adult and Child Consortium for Health Outcomes Research and Delivery Science, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, USA.

PMID: 34319395
DOI: 10.1093/jpids/piab062

Abstract

Background: Child care employee vaccination policies can protect children and adults from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) in child care programs. We aimed to understand the prevalence and characteristics of employee immunization policies at child care facilities and support among child care administrators for statewide employee vaccination regulations.

Methods: A postal mail survey was distributed to a cross-sectional sample of 300 center-based and 300 home-based child care programs in Colorado. Programs were asked to report whether they had any type of policy requiring employee immunizations and if they would support statewide regulations mandating employee immunizations for influenza, pertussis, and measles.

Results: The response rate was 48% (288/600). About 55% of child care programs reported having an employee immunization policy. Child care centers (73%) were more likely than home-based child care programs (30%, P < .001) to report having a policy. Overall, 62% of respondents reported that they would support one or more statewide regulations requiring child care employees to be vaccinated. Home-based programs (71%) were more likely than center-based programs (53%, P = .001) to support one or more statewide child care employee immunization regulations.

Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the variability of employee immunization policies at child care programs across Colorado. These results may be used to inform strategies to increase employee immunization uptake and reduce the incidence of VPDs, including developing comprehensive employee immunization policies at the facility and state level. Future research is needed to understand vaccination knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among child care employees including their perspectives on employee vaccination policies and regulations.

Keywords: child care; immunization; school health; vaccine.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.