The use of reimbursement data for timely monitoring of vaccination coverage: the example of human papillomavirus vaccine following public concerns about vaccine safety

BACKGROUND Since 2011 public concerns about Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination safety and efficacy arose in France. We explored the relevance of using vaccines reimbursement data to assess the impact of those public concerns on vaccination coverage. METHODS We used the Permanent Sample of Beneficiaries which was, at the time of the study, a representative sample of 1/97(th) health insurance beneficiaries of the main Social Security scheme, the General Health Insurance Scheme, covering approximately 77 % of the French resident population. We estimated HPV vaccination coverage among girls born between 1995 and 1999 at their 15(th), 16(th) and 17(th) birthday. RESULTS The coverage for complete vaccination among 16 years old girls decreased from 26.5 % in the first semester of 2011 to 18.6 % in the first semester of 2014. CONCLUSIONS HPV vaccination coverage was already low in 2011 and continued to decrease thereafter. Vaccines reimbursement data allowed us to reactively monitor the impact of the controversy on vaccination coverage and design counteracting measures.