Effect of studying abroad on catch-up vaccination in young adults: A study using the Japan Pretravel Consultation Registry

Nobumasa Okumura; Kei Yamamoto; Noriko Iwamoto; Shinya Tsuzuki; Kenichi Hayashi; Koh Shinohara; Issaku Nakatani; Hidenori Nakagawa; Natsuko Imakita; Takashi Matono; Akihiro Manabe; Tsuyoshi Kitaura; Takahiro Mikawa; Masaya Yamato; Norio Ohmagari

doi:10.1016/j.jiac.2024.10.015

Effect of studying abroad on catch-up vaccination in young adults: A study using the Japan Pretravel Consultation Registry

J Infect Chemother. 2024 Oct 30:S1341-321X(24)00294-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jiac.2024.10.015. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Disease Control and Prevention Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
² Disease Control and Prevention Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. Electronic address: kyamamoto@hosp.ncgm.go.jp.
³ Disease Control and Prevention Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; AMR Clinical Reference Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, Kenwakai Otemachi Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan.
⁵ Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan; Department of Infectious Diseases, Kyoto City Hospital, Kyoto, Japan.
⁶ Travel Clinic, Nara Seibu Hospital, Nara, Japan.
⁷ Department of Infectious Diseases, Osaka City General Hospital, Osaka, Japan.
⁸ Department of Infectious Diseases, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan.
⁹ Department of Infectious Diseases, Aso Iizuka Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan; Division of Infectious Disease and Hospital Epidemiology, Saga University Hospital, Saga, Japan.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Fukuyama City Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan.
¹¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan.
¹² Department of General Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Yamanashi Prefectural Central Hospital, Yamanashi, Japan.
¹³ Center for Infectious Diseases, Rinku General Medical Center, Osaka, Japan.
¹⁴ Disease Control and Prevention Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; AMR Clinical Reference Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.

PMID: 39486642
DOI: 10.1016/j.jiac.2024.10.015

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the effect of studying abroad on catch-up vaccination coverage for measles, rubella, mumps, varicella, and tetanus during the pretravel consultation among young adult travelers.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study analyzed data from the Japan Pretravel Consultation Registry (J-PRECOR) on individuals aged 18-21 years with childhood vaccination records. Propensity score weighting was used to estimate the average treatment effect on the proportion of participants receiving catch-up vaccination.

Results: Among 1091 eligible participants, the catch-up vaccination need was highest for mumps (65.7 %) and varicella (49.0 %) and lowest for measles (9.9 %) and rubella (14.0 %). In the unadjusted analysis, the catch-up vaccination rate was 70.6 % for tetanus, 50.9 % for measles, 47.7 % for rubella, 40.0 % for mumps, and 23.9 % for varicella. In the weighted analysis, the study-abroad group had significantly higher catch-up vaccination rates for measles (54.6 % vs. 29.8 %, P = 0.039), rubella (53.0 % vs. 22.1 %, P < 0.001), and varicella (26.8 % vs. 10.9 %, P = 0.002), whereas the non-study-abroad group had a higher catch-up vaccination rate for tetanus (62.4 % vs. 78.4 %, P = 0.024).

Conclusion: Compared with other travelers, the catch-up vaccination rate among travelers studying abroad was higher for measles, rubella, and varicella, but lower for tetanus. In clients planning to study abroad, vaccinations required for travel should be recommended in addition to those required by the host institution, and vaccination against highly infectious diseases with potential for complications, such as measles, rubella, mumps, and varicella, should be recommended to clients traveling for reasons other than studying abroad.

Keywords: Catch-up vaccination; Pretravel consultation; Studying abroad; Vaccine-preventable disease.

Copyright © 2024 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, and Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.