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Improving immunization coverage and equity - technical resources
Comparing Resources
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| Resource | WHO EPI Coverage Surveys |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Provide a coverage estimate for selected vaccines or a set of vaccines (fully vaccinated for age) among infants, children and/or women of childbearing age, etc. |
| Content | It provides high-quality coverage data for programme monitoring and evaluation with results that are credible to national and international policymakers. The data is representative, of high quality and the estimates of vaccination coverage are reproducible. In addition, the EPI coverage survey assesses barriers to vaccination. The data can be used to understand and monitor the performance of routine vaccination services at subnational and national levels, to measure the effectiveness of interventions to increase coverage, to evaluate how well a supplementary immunization activity or vaccination campaign has reached the target population. It can also be used to estimate the rate of dropout and frequency of missed immunization opportunities due to non-simultaneous vaccination, as well as the impact of vaccination on disease burden. |
| Expected outcomes | Provision of high-quality coverage data for programme monitoring and evaluation with results that are credible to national and international policymakers. |
| Use | Does not require user input. Data is available. |
| Strengths | (a) EPI coverage survey assists NIPs to produce/generate high quality representative and reproducible estimates of vaccination coverage. (b) The EPI coverage survey assesses barriers to vaccination as well as vaccination coverage. (c) The cluster sampling has feasibility and cost advantages over simple random sampling. (d) An annex to the manual aims to help policymakers decide whether to conduct a survey, and if so, to decide which kind of survey may best meet programme goals. |
| Contraints/Limitations | (a) Rigorously implemented probability samples of adequate size to measure coverage at subnational levels are resource-intensive in terms of time, expertise, and funds. Household surveys may not always be the best investment to answer questions that are raised by program managers. (b) Statistical expertise will be needed to conduct weighted analyses and to help with sample size calculations. (c) There are limitations of both survey design and survey implementation described in the manual (e.g. sampling frame, training related issues, access to sites, extracting vaccination data from records). |
| Why use it | (a) To monitor the performance of routine vaccination services at subnational and national levels. (b) To measure the effectiveness of interventions to increase coverage. (c) To evaluate how well a supplementary immunization activity (SIA), or vaccination campaign, has reached the target population. (d) To provide insights into areas of programme weakness. (e) To estimate the rate of dropout and frequency of missed immunization opportunities due to non-simultaneous vaccination. (f) To measure the coverage of vaccines recently introduced into the national immunization programme. (g) To contribute data to models of the impact of vaccination on disease burden. (h) To act as an indicator of programme readiness to introduce new vaccines. (i) To disaggregate coverage by factors such as place of residence, sex, maternal education, economic status or subnational region. (j) To collect data on barriers to immunisation. (k) Of relevance to zero dose and under immunisation – see (e), (f), (i), (j). |
| Who should use it | Ministries of health (such as immunization programme managers, communicable disease epidemiologists and surveillance officers) and their partners who are considering an EPI coverage survey. |
| Example criteria this resource could address | Coverage data can be used to understand the performance of routine vaccination services, or the data can be used to estimate the rate of drop out. |
| If available, notes on the development process | Usually conducted in the country by Ministries of Health (such as immunization programme managers, communicable diseases epidemiologists and surveillance officers) and their partners who are considering an EPI coverage survey. |
| Additional Links | |
| Link to access the resource | /en/resources/guidance/who-epi-coverage-surveys |
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