Vaccines are important for infants and toddlers because many of the diseases vaccines prevent are more common, and more deadly, at this age. Vaccination protects not only the child who receives the vaccine, but also others in the child’s community, including those who, for health reasons, cannot be vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends four doses of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine, three or more doses of polio vaccine, one or more doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, three or more doses of the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine (or, for certain brands, four or more doses), the hepatitis B vaccine, and the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine.
The estimates reported here are from 2019. Technical notes on vaccine abbreviations, dose definitions and vaccine series for the National Immunization Survey (NIS) surveillance tables are available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/coverage/nis/child/tech-notes.html.
The numerator is the number of toddlers ages 19-35 months who received the recommended doses of DTaP, polio, MMR, Hib, HepB, varicella and PCV vaccines. The denominator is the number of toddlers ages 19-35 months.
This indicator can be disaggregated by race/ethnicity and income. Race/ethnicity: Survey respondents reported the toddler’s race. The public-use file includes the following categories: Hispanic, non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic other. The non-Hispanic other category includes Asian, American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, other races, and multiple races. These are the race/ethnicity categories presented with the indicator; however, the other and multiple race categories are very limited as they are an amalgamation of many different cultures. Income: NIS reports income-to-poverty ratios based on family income, number of persons in the household, number of children in the household, and the 2018 Census poverty thresholds. The imputed income-to-poverty ratio is used for the State of Babies Yearbook: 2023. Families with an income-to-poverty ratio less than 2 are considered low-income. Those with values greater than 2 are considered “not low-income.”
Source:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. (2022). The 2020 National Immunization Survey – Child [Dataset]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/nis/datasets.html