Learning Objectives for this Presentation:
By the end of the presentation participants will have a sense of the validity of parental report of childhood influenza vaccination coverage compared to reports from parent-identified immunization providers.

Background:
Assessment of vaccination coverage among children aged 19-35 months by the National Immunization Survey (NIS) is based upon provider-verified vaccination data. Other surveys that assess adult influenza vaccination status typically rely upon self-report only. While previous research shows that parental report of childhood vaccinations has poor validity, there is a paucity of research on the validity of parental report of childhood influenza vaccination status.

Objectives:
To examine the validity of parental-report of influenza vaccination status of children aged 19-35 months.

Methods:
The NIS is an ongoing, national, random-digit-dial survey of households with children aged 19-35 months followed by a mail survey to the children's parent-identified immunization providers. The influenza topical module was conducted in quarters 2 and 3, 2004 among a subset (n=3815) of children who reached the end of the NIS interview. If a household had more than one NIS age-eligible child, the youngest one was selected for the influenza topical module interview. Parent report of the child receiving at least one influenza vaccination in the 2003-04 influenza season was compared to provider report of one or more doses of influenza vaccination; sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated.

Results:
According to parental report, 28% of children aged 19-35 months received an influenza vaccination in the 2003-04 season; according to provider report, 17% were vaccinated. The sensitivity of parent reported child influenza vaccination coverage compared to provider report was 0.86 with a specificity of 0.81. However, the PPV was only 0.54; the NPV was 0.96.

Conclusions:
Influenza vaccination coverage levels vary depending upon whether parental report or provider report is utilized.