San Diego Immunization Information > Data & Statistics

County Vaccination Coverage

The San Diego County Random Digit Dialing (RDD) Immunization Survey

Why are they calling me about an immunization survey?

The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency's Immunization Branch conducts Random Digit Dialing (RDD) telephone surveys year-round. More than 20 interviewers will make phone calls to randomly selected phone numbers during weekday evenings (5-9 PM) and on Saturdays (10 AM -2 PM) to assess immunization coverage rates for San Diego County residents.

This survey provides valuable data to determine what proportions of infants, children, adults and seniors living in San Diego County are fully immunized. The information collected helps us plan programs to do a better job of protecting all San Diegans from vaccine preventable diseases.

The following graphs display some selected results of the survey and other state and national surveys. For more information about the RDD Survey, please call the Immunization Branch at (619) 692-8661.

Different telephone and school surveys have shown that increasing percentages of San Diego County preschool children are getting vaccinated. They have almost reached the Healthy People 2000 goal of 90% getting four doses of DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis), three doses of polio, and one dose of MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella) vaccines.

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RDD-stats-chart1.pdf (2 pages)

Our telephone surveys found that we have met the Healthy People 2010 goal of 80% of San Diego County preschool children getting all the standard vaccines. These include: four doses of DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis), three doses of polio, one dose of MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella), three doses of hepatitis B, three doses of Hib (Haemophilus influenzae B), and one dose of varicella (chickenpox).

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RDD-stats-chart2.pdf

Infants in San Diego County have started receiving the flu vaccination, since it was first encouraged in 2002.

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RDD-stats-chart3.pdf

When we look at the coverage for each vaccine separately, we see that some reached the Healthy People 2010 goal of 90% years ago, and have gone a little higher since then, such as for the third dose of DTP (labeled DTP3). The new vaccines, protecting against hepatitis B (HepB3) and chickenpox (varicella), started with low coverage, and reached the 2010 goal as more people received them. In 1995 the number of children receiving the fourth dose of DTP (DTP4) was far below the 2010 goal. In 2004 the number was higher, but did not reach this goal, needed to protect the whole population of children well.

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RDD-stats-chart4.pdf

The percentage of San Diego County residents age 65 and over getting the flu and pneumococcal vaccines has been similar each year. The flu vaccine coverage is higher than most of the U.S.

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RDD-stats-chart5.pdf

People who would like to protect themselves from getting influenza are recommended to get flu vaccine. People in some age ranges, health conditions, or occupations have a higher risk of complications or transmission of influenza. The percentages of people receiving the vaccine in San Diego County have stayed about the same for years, while some dropped in 2004-2005 because of the flu vaccine shortage.

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RDD-stats-chart6.pdf

When there was a shortage of influenza vaccine in the fall and winter of 2004 – 2005, the groups most highly recommended to receive the vaccine continued to receive it in about the same percentages as in the year before. In the groups with a lower priority recommendation (those age 50 – 64, and age 18 – 49 with no risk factors), there was a statistically significant decrease in the numbers receiving the vaccine.

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RDD-stats-chart7.pdf