Screening for Measles Vaccination in Young Japanese Non‐healthcare Workers Through Self‐reported History

Screening for Measles Vaccination in Young Japanese Non‐healthcare Workers Through Self‐reported History: Chihiro NISHIURA, et al . Department of Safety and Health, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.—Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of a self‐administered questionnaire as a prescreening tool to determine the immune status against measles among non‐healthcare workers. Methods The study subjects were Japanese non‐healthcare workers aged 19–30 yr employed at a gas company that underwent an annual health checkup in 2009. Their histories of measles infection, vaccination and possible contact with measles patients were collected through a self‐administered questionnaire. The sensitivity and specificity of these self‐reports were analyzed against a serum anti‐measles IgG assay as a gold standard. Results Of the 509 respondents, 93.3% had immunity against measles. The sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values for the self‐report questionnaire were 14.1, 97.1 and 98.5% for infection history; 39.2, 73.5 and 95.4% for vaccination history; and 13.1, 85.3 and 92.5% for possible contact history, respectively. Conclusions Self‐reported histories poorly predicted immune status against measles in young Japanese non‐healthcare workers. The results suggest that a universal serological screening is still the most effective method available to identify those who require measles vaccination.