Varicella Vaccination: A Case Study

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In this article the authors describe a research study which targets to analysis the risk of Varicella infection needing medical care in children whose parents reject Varicella immunization. The authors used a match case-control study with restricted logistic regression analysis in a population of children enrolled in Kaiser Permanente of Colorado (KPCO) health plan between 1998 and 2008. The study population involved children aged 12 months to 8 years who were members of the KPCO since 1998 and 2008. Each pediatric physician identified case of Varicella was matched to four randomly nominated controls. They were corresponding by age, sex and length of registration in KPCO. Possible cases of varicella were recognized using the KPCO automated database. The abstractors in the lab documented prior exposure to close interactions infected with varicella; previous conditions that may escalation the risk of severe varicella infection and …show more content…
Firstly the study population was chosen from a single managed health care plan in Colorado, which may limit the generalizability of their results. Secondly, it is possible that physicians are possibly making a analysis of varicella in children who are unvaccinated than in children who are vaccinated. This type of diagnostic prejudice would lead to an misjudge of the risk related with vaccine refusal. However, breakthrough cases in vaccinated patients are common. In their study, 95% of varicella victims were in children who were immunized against varicella. For this reason, they do not trust that a diagnostic prejudice had a large effect on their results. Thirdly, vaccine rejection in their case-control population was unusual; there were only 10 vaccine deniers (1.6%) of the 626 victims and controls. As a result, they did not have enough statistical power to assess the link between vaccine rejection and varicella infection by year from 1998 to