New Findings from Institute for Health Research in the Area of Immunization Described (Strengths and limitations of non-survey-based data sources for assessing adult vaccination coverage in the United States): Public Health – Immunization

Vaccine Daily

2025 APR 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Vaccine Daily -- Investigators publish new report on immunization. According to news reporting from Aurora, Colorado, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Non-survey-based data sources (e.g. electronic health records, administrative claims) have been used to estimate vaccination coverage among US adults.”

Funders for this research include Centers For Disease Control And Prevention.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Institute for Health Research: “However, these data sources were not collected for research or surveillance purposes and may have substantial limitations. The objectives of this narrative review were to: 1) identify published studies that used non-survey-based data sources to estimate adult vaccination coverage for one or more routinely recommended vaccines; and 2) summarize the strengths and limitations of these data sources for coverage assessments. Areas covered Thirty-four publications derived from 9 data sources were reviewed: 16 publications were in a general population (i.e. defined by age), 12 were among pregnant women, and 6 were among individuals with chronic health conditions. While several data sources used continuous health insurance enrollment to define the study population, doing so limited generalizability to stably insured populations. Methods for obtaining race and ethnicity data were complex and potentially subject to bias. None of the reviewed studies presented any formal assessment of vaccine data validity.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Expert opinion While multiple non-survey-based data sources have been used to assess adult vaccination coverage in the United States, important limitations exist, including related to generalizability, data validity, and risk of bias.”

For more information on this research see: Strengths and limitations of non-survey-based data sources for assessing adult vaccination coverage in the United States. Expert Review of Vaccines, 2025. The publisher for Expert Review of Vaccines is Taylor & Francis Group.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/14760584.2025.2483719.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Matthew F. Daley, Institute for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Aurora, CO, United States. Additional authors for this research include Kamonthip J. Homdayjanakul, Laura P. Hurley, Peng-Jun Lu, Yuping Tsai, Carla L. Black, Suchita Patel, James A. Singleton, Lori A. Crane.