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. 2024 Aug;29(34):2300503.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.34.2300503.

Mobile vaccination units to increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake in areas with lower coverage: a within-neighbourhood analysis using national registration data, the Netherlands, September-December 2021

Mattijs S Lambooij  1   2 , Joyce Pijpers  3 , Jan van de Kassteele  4 , Mirjam P Fransen  1   5 , Susan Jm Hahné  3 , Niek Hof  6 , Floor M Kroese  1   7 , Hester de Melker  3 , Mart van Dijk  1 , Ellen Uiters  8 , Marijn de Bruin  1   9
Affiliations

Mobile vaccination units to increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake in areas with lower coverage: a within-neighbourhood analysis using national registration data, the Netherlands, September-December 2021

Mattijs S Lambooij et al. Euro Surveill. 2024 Aug.

Erratum in

  • Erratum for Euro Surveill. 2024;29(34).
    Eurosurveillance editorial team. Eurosurveillance editorial team. Euro Surveill. 2024 Aug;29(35):240829e. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.35.240829e. Euro Surveill. 2024. PMID: 39212060 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

BackgroundVaccine uptake differs between social groups. Mobile vaccination units (MV-units) were deployed in the Netherlands by municipal health services in neighbourhoods with low uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.AimWe aimed to evaluate the impact of MV-units on vaccine uptake in neighbourhoods with low vaccine uptake.MethodsWe used the Dutch national-level registry of COVID-19 vaccinations (CIMS) and MV-unit deployment registrations containing observations in 253 neighbourhoods where MV-units were deployed and 890 contiguous neighbourhoods (total observations: 88,543 neighbourhood-days). A negative binomial regression with neighbourhood-specific temporal effects using splines was used to study the effect.ResultsDuring deployment, the increase in daily vaccination rate in targeted neighbourhoods ranged from a factor 2.0 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.8-2.2) in urbanised neighbourhoods to 14.5 (95% CI: 11.6-18.0) in rural neighbourhoods. The effects were larger in neighbourhoods with more voters for the Dutch conservative Reformed Christian party but smaller in neighbourhoods with a higher proportion of people with non-western migration backgrounds. The absolute increase in uptake over the complete intervention period ranged from 0.22 percentage points (95% CI: 0.18-0.26) in the most urbanised neighbourhoods to 0.33 percentage point (95% CI: 0.28-0.37) in rural neighbourhoods.ConclusionDeployment of MV-units increased daily vaccination rate, particularly in rural neighbourhoods, with longer travel distance to permanent vaccination locations. This public health intervention shows promise to reduce geographic and social health inequalities, but more proactive and long-term deployment is required to identify its potential to substantially contribute to overall vaccination rates at country level.

Keywords: Public health; effect evaluation; inequality; intervention; mobile vaccination units; vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map showing the placement of mobile vaccination units for COVID-19 vaccine in targeted neighbourhoods for at least 1 day, the Netherlands, September−December 2021 (n = 973)a
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative rates of daily vaccination rates against COVID-19 on a day with and without a mobile vaccination unit in a neighbourhood, stratified by level of urbanisation, the Netherlands, September–December 2021
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effect of deployed mobile vaccination units on relative vaccination rates in neighbourhoods by percentage of voters for the Dutch Reformed Political Party (A), percentage of people with a non-western migration background (B) and socioeconomic status score (C), stratified by level of urbanisation, the Netherlands, September–December 2021 (n = 252 targeted neighbourhoods)
Figure 4
Figure 4
Difference in vaccine uptake in neighbourhoods with and without mobile vaccination units, stratified by level of urbanisation, the Netherlands, September–December 2021
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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