National Immunization Survey (NIS) Series

The National Immunization Surveys, beginning with 1995, are designed to assess progress on the Childhood Immunization Initiative (CII) established in 1992 and to track individual states' percentages of properly vaccinated children. The charges of the initiative were to improve the delivery of vaccines to children, to reduce the costs of vaccinations that are passed down to parents, to enhance community awareness of the need for vaccinations, to improve vaccinations and their use, and to monitor vaccination coverage and the occurrences of disease. The vaccines covered are the diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis vaccine (DTP), the poliovirus vaccine (polio), the measles-containing vaccine (MCV), the Haemophilus Influenzae type b vaccine (Hib), the hepatitis B vaccine (Hep B), and the varicella zoster vaccine. The Childhood Immunization Initiative established vaccination goals of 90 percent coverage for the measles, diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis, poliovirus, and Haemophilus vaccines and 70 percent coverage for the hepatitis vaccine. Parents or guardians were asked to complete questionnaires that would provide vaccination information about their children, ages 19-35 months, living in the United States. Once (and if) consent was obtained from the parents, contact was then made with pediatricians, family physicians, and other health-care providers for further vaccination information about the children. The data for this series includes types of immunizations, dates of administration, and vaccination facility characteristics. The National Immunization Survey estimates are compiled by comparing the information from parents or guardians to that of pediatricians, physicians, and other health-care providers.