Funding outcome

Experiences of racism, discrimination, and colonialism within the healthcare system, as well as limited health care access, may contribute to First Nations children receiving vaccinations at lower rates than non-First Nations children. The Early Years (EY) Program is a prenatal-to-preschool home visitation program whose participants are receiving childhood vaccinations at six times the rate of children who are not in the program. Through the proposed project, we will build on recent work in this area by learning from and documenting the impacts of the EY, which is a community-led solution. More specifically, the objectives of this research study are to (1) understand the factors associated with enhanced vaccine uptake among participants in an early childhood home visitation program; and (2) generate recommendations for applying this innovation with other First Nation communities where the EY is being implemented. To achieve these objectives, we will examine quantitative and qualitative data entered into the EY Impact database over the past five years, conduct surveys and focus groups with EY Visitors and participants, and hold meetings with Elders. We will use statistics to examine our quantitative data, and we will approach our qualitative data using thematic analysis. In addition, information from the EY Database and surveys will be used to create focus group questions. During focus groups, we will ask participants to discuss their perspectives on barriers to and facilitators of routine childhood vaccinations. We will share results of our study widely with the ultimate goal of contributing to vaccine equity among First Nations children. Our collaborative strategies for sharing our findings will be used to shape actions toward ultimately enhancing the health and wellbeing of First Nations children.