Universal hepatitis B vaccination coverage in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities.

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. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.