Residential mobility and uptake of childhood immunisations: Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

SummaryIt has been hypothesised that lower vaccine uptake in childhood among some groups, such as children of lone parents or from larger families, may be due to their higher levels of residential mobility. This paper aimed to explore this association in a large cohort of children born in the UK at the turn of the century. Using multi-variable Poisson regression we found that children who lived in families which had moved during pregnancy or more frequently were more likely to be partially immunised with the primary immunisations and unimmunised against measles, mumps and rubella. Mobility was not associated with being unimmunised with the primary vaccines, or with single measles, mumps and rubella antigen vaccine use. These findings suggest that policies are needed to encourage the building and maintenance of relationships between health care professionals and parents, before and after they move, and better use of IT systems to aid follow-up of mobile families.