Since 2007, the Australian immunisation schedule has included adolescent vaccinations for human papilloma virus (females), diphtheria, hepatitis B, pertussis, tetanus, and varicella-zoster year.1 In Western Australian (WA) these vaccinations are offered via a year seven, school-based vaccination program.
Written consent is a pre-requisite for vaccination. Strategies undertaken to improve consent form return (termed return rate) include verbal reminders to the student and/or parent, giving another vaccination information and consent package to the student and/or their parent, and sending a written reminder to parents of students who had not returned a consent form. Class incentives have been used to increase return rate,2 but had not been tried in WA. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of these strategies on return rate.
- peer-reviewed
Mak, D. B., Bulsara, M., Goggin, L. S., & Effler, P. V. (2011). Resending a consent form and information package to non-responders increases school-based consent return rate. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 35(1), 89–90. doi:10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00669.x