Adolescent health briefImmunization Rates in a Canadian Juvenile Corrections Facility
Section snippets
Methods
In the current study, charts were reviewed for all adolescents admitted to the St. Lawrence Youth Association, a custody facility for youth in the Eastern Ontario region, between January 2003 and October 2005. All youths had an intake history and physical examination, and their immunization records were retrieved on admission. Records were obtained from multiple sources including family records, legal guardians, or public health departments' computer-based registries. Eleven youths were
Results
There were 234 admissions over a 34-month period. This group represented a total of 159 adolescents, 81 male and 78 female, between ages 12 and 17 years. Of the 148 youth admitted and eligible for this study, 73% were incompletely immunized according to National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) guidelines [8]. Upon release from detention, incomplete immunizations decreased to 35%. Rates of specific missing individual immunizations ranged from 49% for tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular
Discussion
Population demographics of detainees revealed youth of primarily Caucasian descent from low to middle socioeconomic groups. It is the current standard of practice at the detention center to provide immunizations to detainees [2].
Youth who did not complete immunizations are accounted for by minimum interval considerations between vaccine series, refusal of immunizations, short detention stay, or lack of repeat admissions. One of the barriers to immunization is timely retrieval of accurate
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Cited by (9)
Chronic hepatitis B in children and adolescents
2012, Journal of HepatologyCitation Excerpt :Nonetheless, after 20 years from the introduction of immunization programs, most infants and children are protected against HBV [10], and chronic carriers should not be isolated in schools or prevented from practicing sports. Transmission occurs rarely in childcare settings [7], but the risk is higher in detention centers, where adolescents are less likely to be immunized and have high-risk behaviors [11,12]. In highly endemic areas, infection occurs mainly in infancy and early childhood, with mother-to-child transmission accounting for more than half of chronic infections.
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