Associations between economic crises and childhood vaccinationcoverage: Evidence from 160 countries, 2000–2019

This peer-reviewed article in Global Public Health examines how national economic crises are associated with childhood vaccination coverage across 160 countries between 2000 and 2019. The study uses a cross-national time-series analysis linking data on banking, currency, and sovereign debt crises with WHO immunization coverage estimates for DTP, hepatitis B, measles, and polio.

Key findings include:

• Economic crises were associated with statistically significant reductions in childhood vaccination coverage across all four vaccines studied: DTP, hepatitis B, measles, and polio.
• The estimated reductions ranged from around 1.2 percentage points for DTP, measles, and polio to 1.8 percentage points for hepatitis B.
• The negative associations were most visible in the short term, particularly in the year immediately following a crisis, and became statistically insignificant after two to three years.
• Banking crises and sovereign debt crises showed the strongest negative associations with vaccination coverage, while currency crises were not significantly associated with coverage changes.
• Multi-dose vaccines, particularly hepatitis B and polio, appeared more vulnerable to economic crises than single-dose measures, suggesting that crises may affect completion of vaccination schedules.

Thumbnail image credit: Gavi