Resending a consent form and information package to non-responders increases school-based consent return rate.

摘要

Since 2007, the Australian immunisation schedule has included adolescent vaccinations for human papilloma virus (females), diphtheria, hepatitis B, pertussis, tetanus, and varicella-zoster year. In Western Australian (WA) these vaccinations are offered via a year seven, school-based vaccination program. Written consent is a pre-requisite for vaccination. Strategies undertaken to improve consent form return (termed return rate) include verbal reminders to the student and/or parent, giving another vaccination information and consent package to the student and/or their parent, and sending a written reminder to parents of students who had not returned a consent form. Class incentives have been used to increase return rate, but had not been tried in WA. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of these strategies on return rate.