The demand for childhood immunizations: results from the Baltimore Immunization Study.
In spite of the net social benefits of childhood vaccines, a substantial proportion of American children do not receive their full complement of immunizations by their second birthday. Designing policies and programs that increase the rate of completed immunizations in preschool children requires an understanding of the factors which contribute to the timely receipt of immunizations. In this paper, we estimate a model of demand for immunizations for preschool children. Our results suggest that household resources, the child's usual source of care, and other "convenience factors" significantly influence the successful completion of the immunization schedule.
Frank
R G
RG
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Dewa
C S
CS
Holt
E
E
Hughart
N
N
Strobino
D
D
Guyer
B
B
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D015142:Baltimore; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007115:Immunization Schedule; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008390:Markov Chains; D008484:Medicaid; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D014611:Vaccination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*