Universal hepatitis B vaccination coverage in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
One in four Taiwanese students with ID lacks completed hepatitis B vaccination—check immunization records at every care visit.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lin et al. (2010) looked at hepatitis B shots in Taiwanese students with intellectual disability. They used school nurse records to see who had all three doses.
The team also asked parents about income and age to find what predicts missed shots.
What they found
Only 74% of the students had finished the vaccine series. That is half the rate for typical kids in Taiwan.
Lower family income and being older raised the chance of missing shots.
How this fits with other research
Lineberry et al. (2023) asked the same question during COVID-19. They found that doctor-delivered information and trusted relationships still drive higher uptake in people with IDD.
Wu et al. (2015) show another Taiwanese gap: kids with autism averaged 14 more doctor visits per year than peers. Together these papers paint a picture of higher medical need but lower preventive care.
McCarron et al. (2022) prove large ID surveys can work. Their 87% retention after 11 years shows that gentle, low-burden methods reach families like those Jin-Ding studied.
Why it matters
One in four students with ID in Taiwan still lack full hepatitis B protection. Check vaccine cards at intake, re-schedule missed doses, and use plain-language handouts. A quick nurse call or visual schedule can close the gap before liver disease risk rises.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There is little information of hepatitis B vaccination coverage for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). The present paper aims to examine the completed hepatitis B vaccination coverage rate and its determinants of children and adolescents with ID in Taiwan. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey, with the entire response participants was composed of 495 primary caregivers of children and adolescents with ID (age 3-24 years) who studying in 3 special education schools in Taiwan. The results showed that coverage rate of completed hepatitis B vaccination was 74.34% in children and adolescents with ID. Although hepatitis B vaccination is a universal health policy in Taiwan, the uncompleted coverage rate of our study subjects was 2 times of the Taiwan general population at the same age. In the logistic regression analysis of hepatitis B vaccination coverage, we found that the factors of household income and ID individual's age were variables that can significantly predict they did not accept a completed vaccination. The present study suggests that parents and providers should routinely review immunizations of children and adolescents with ID.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2009.09.005