Validity of measles immunization certificates submitted upon enrollment in an elementary school in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
To increase the booster vaccination rate, the Korean government legislated a measles vaccination for elementary school students in 2001, requiring parents to submit a certificate of vaccination upon the admission of the students to elementary school. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of measles vaccination certificates which were issued to parents.


METHODS
Using questionnaire survey data of 890 general practitioners and 9,235 parents in 2005, we investigated the evidence for booster vaccination certificates of measles.


RESULTS
In the survey of general practitioners, 59.5% of the certificates depended on the medical records of clinic, 13.5% was immunization booklets, 23.7% was re-immunizations, 1.9% was confirmation of record of other clinics, and 1.4% was parents' statements or requests without evidence. In the survey of parents, 36.2% of the certificates depended on the medical records of clinic, 43.4% was immunization booklets, 18.0% was reimmunizations, and 2.4% was parents statements or requests without evidence.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that a majority of the booster vaccination certificates of measles was issued on the basis of documented vaccinations and it means that the implementation of the law requiring the submission of elementary school students' vaccination certificates has been very successful in Korea.
Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Korea.
Kunsei
K
Lee
Hyeongsu
H
Kim
Eunyoung
E
Shin
Youngtaek
Y
Kim
Sounghoon
S
Chang
Jaewook
J
Choi
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002568:Certification; D004282:Documentation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008458:Measles Vaccine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014611:Vaccination / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D008458:Measles Vaccine