Vaccination coverage of young children is good in Finland – slight decrease in coverage for some vaccines
Vaccination coverage for vaccines in the children's vaccination programme remains high in Finland. However, slight declines have been seen in the coverage for some vaccines in the past couple of years. This information is provided by the Finnish national vaccination register.
Of all children born in 2020, 97 percent have received the 5-in-1 vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and Hib diseases. Its coverage among children born in 2019 and 2020 is slightly lower than in previous age groups, with whom the coverage was nearly 99 percent. However, in many wellbeing services counties coverage remains at 99 percent.
About 94 percent of children born in 2020 have received the first dose of the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella. National MMR vaccine coverage has also been declining gradually in recent years. However, in some wellbeing services counties coverage has either stayed at a good level or has even increased.
“Reasons for the decline in vaccine coverages are being studied in cooperation with the wellbeing services counties. The decline could be explained purely by shortcomings in data transfer, but we are investigating if there might be other reasons in the background. There were shortcomings in the vaccinations for small children at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but the vaccinations have mostly been administered later. In 2020 visits to child health clinics declined, but already in 2021 visits by children under the age of three were back at the 2019 level”, says THL Medical Specialist Anniina Virkku.
Coverage for rotavirus, pneumococcus, and chicken pox vaccines at previous levels
Coverage for the rotavirus and pneumococcus vaccines have remained at previous levels. The rotavirus vaccine has been administered to 93 percent of children born in 2020 and the pneumococcus vaccine has been given to 96 percent of those in the age group.
The popularity of the chicken pox vaccine has grown with each successive year ever since the vaccine became a part of the vaccination programme in the autumn of 2017. However, the popularity appears to have plateaued now. About 86 percent of children born in 2020 have been given the chicken pox vaccine, which is the same level as the coverage of children born in 2019.
Slight increase in the proportion of unvaccinated children
Being fully unvaccinated remains very rare in Finland. Children are considered unvaccinated if they have not received any rotavirus, pneumococcus, MMR, and 5-in-1 or 4-in-1 vaccines.
The proportion of children who have not received any vaccinations by their third year has remained stable for several years. Unvaccinated children have numbered about one percent of their age group. The proportion of unvaccinated children among those born in 2020 has grown to 1.4 percent.
However, the proportion of children who have not received any vaccinations by their eighth year has hardly grown. Only 0.8 percent of those born in 2015 have not received any basic vaccinations by the age of eight.
Recording and data transfer on vaccinations still need development
Information on vaccine coverage is based on up-to-date information from the national vaccination register. The information is received to the register from the patient data systems. Vaccination coverage is reported at the national and municipal level, and for the first time at the wellbeing services county level.
Because of problems with recording vaccinations and transferring data, true vaccination coverage is probably higher than figures in the vaccination register suggest. Much work has already been done to fix the problems with data transfer, and cooperation continues with those responsible for administering vaccinations, Electronic Patient Record system providers and administrators of the systems.
“It is important to ascertain the true reasons behind the slight decline in coverages and to initiate the necessary measures together with the wellbeing services counties”, says THL Chief Specialist Mia Kontio.
Further information
Map of children's vaccine coverage (THL)
Map of proportions of unvaccinated children in different areas and in Finland (THL)
Vaccination coverage of children born in 2020 and 2015 (THL, in Finnish)
Vaccination programme for children (THL)
Anniina Virkku
Medical Specialist
THL
[email protected]
Mia Kontio
Chief Specialist
THL
[email protected]
