Effectiveness of individually tailored calendars in promoting childhood immunization in urban public health centers.

OBJECTIVES We examined the effectiveness of tailored calendars in increasing childhood immunization rates. METHODS Parents of babies aged birth to 1 year (n = 321) received individually tailored calendars promoting immunization from 2 urban public health centers. For each baby, an age- and sex-matched control was selected from the same center. Immunization status was tracked through age 24 months. RESULTS A higher proportion of intervention than of control babies were up to date at the end of a 9-month enrollment period (82% vs 65%, P <.001) and at age 24 months (66% vs 47%, P <.001). The younger the baby's age at enrollment in the program, the greater was the intervention effect. CONCLUSIONS Tailored immunization calendars can help increase child immunization rates.