Factors conditioning effectiveness of a reminder/recall system to improve influenza vaccination in asthmatic children.

In order to verify whether a telephone recall system directly managed by pediatricians who usually follow up children for their asthma is more effective than an anonymous recall system- we randomly assigned 285 asthmatic children (177 males/ mean age 10.3+/-3.4 years) to one of three groups: those whose mothers were to be called by a pediatrician not previously involved in caring for their asthmatic children and who received the vaccine in our immunisation clinic (group 1)/ those whose mothers were to be called by a pediatrician from our asthma clinic and who received the vaccine in the immunisation clinic (group 2)/ and those whose mothers were to be called by a pediatrician from our asthma clinic and who received the vaccine in the same clinic (group 3). Our findings highlight that the use of a reminder/recall system increases vaccination rates in asthmatic children- and show that the best results are obtained when the mothers are contacted and the vaccine administered by the pediatricians who usually follo