Identifying and addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on school-based immunisation programmes in the Canadian Maritimes: a mixed methods study protocol.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of keeping up to date on routine vaccinations. Throughout the pandemic, many routine vaccine programmes in Canada were paused or cancelled, including school-based immunisation programmes (SBIP). This resulted in decreased coverage for many vaccine-preventable diseases. While the effects of the pandemic on SBIP have been described in other provinces, its effects in the Maritime region (ie, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) have yet to be understood. We aim to determine how these programmes were affected by COVID-19 and associated public health measures in the Canadian Maritimes by (1) identifying and describing usual and interim catch-up programmes; (2) exploring stakeholders' perceptions of SBIP through interviews; and (3) designing recommendations with stakeholders to address gaps in SBIP and vaccine coverage. A sequential, explanatory mixed methods study design will be used to address the objectives during the study period (September 2022-December 2023). First, an environmental scan will describe changes to SBIP and vaccine coverage over a period of five school years (2018/2019-2022/2023). Findings will inform semistructured interviews (n=65) with key stakeholders (eg, health officials, healthcare providers, school officials and parents and adolescents) to explore perceptions of SBIP and changes in parental vaccine hesitancy during the pandemic. These data will be integrated to design recommendations to support SBIP during two stakeholder engagement meetings. Analysis will be guided by the behaviour change wheel, a series of complementary tools and frameworks to simplify behaviour diagnosis and analysis in public health research. Ethics approval for this study has been obtained from Dalhousie University's Health Sciences Research Ethics Board (Ref: 2022-6395). Informed consent will be obtained from participants prior to participating in an interview or stakeholder engagement meeting. Study findings will be disseminated through conference presentations, publications and infographics.