All children for whom the local authority is responsible who received one dose of MMR on or after their first birthday and at any time up to their fifth birthday as a percentage of all children whose fifth birthday falls within the time period.
Rationale
MMR is the combined vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Measles, mumps and rubella are highly infectious, common conditions that can have serious complications, including meningitis, swelling of the brain (encephalitis) and deafness. They can also lead to complications in pregnancy that affect the unborn baby and can lead to miscarriage.
Vaccination coverage is the best indicator of the level of protection a population will have against vaccine preventable communicable diseases. Coverage is closely correlated with levels of disease. Monitoring coverage identifies possible drops in immunity before levels of disease rise.
The first MMR vaccine is given to children as part of the routine vaccination schedule, usually within a month of their first birthday. They'll then have a booster dose before starting school, which is usually between three and five years of age. Previous evidence shows that highlighting vaccination programmes encourages improvements in uptake levels.May also have relevance for NICE guidance PH21: Reducing differences in the uptake of immunisations (The guidance aims to increase immunisation uptake among those aged under 19 years from groups where uptake is low).
Definition of numerator
Total number of children whose fifth birthday falls within the time period who received one dose of MMR on or after their first birthday and at any time before their fifth birthday.
Data for 2013 to 2014 are available at source at LA level. Data prior to 2013 to 2014 were collected at PCT level and converted to LA level using the criteria as described in the notes section below.
Definition of denominator
Total number of children whose fifth birthday falls within the time period.
Data from 2013 to 2014 are available at source at LA level. Data prior to 2013 to 2014 were collected at PCT level and converted to LA level using the criteria as described in the notes section below.
Caveats
Full GP postcodes are used to aggregate data to ICB. The GP-level coverage data is collected by NHS Digital Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS) and published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) COVER team. ICB data is experimental data and should be treated with caution. It is not an official statistic.