IntroductionVaccine-preventable diseases continue to cause morbidity and mortality despite the introduction of childhood immunizations. Recent media reports from Canada and the United States of America (USA) have highlighted a rise in childhood illnesses like measles, which could have been prevented with vaccines. Parents play a pivotal role in ensuring their children receive timely vaccinations. Immunization reminders can help parents who forget or miss vaccination appointments. In the USA, current literature indicates that Black children have lower vaccination rates than other racialized children and vaccine reminders may improve measles vaccine uptake among Black parents. However, there is limited data in Canada on vaccine uptake in children of Black parents, with evidence suggesting vaccine hesitancy among the Black population.ObjectiveThis scoping review aims to map out existing literature on immunization reminder strategies among parents to identify their impact in improving childhood vaccination rates and promoting child health.Inclusion criteriaThe review will include studies conducted in Canada and the United States of America that focus on immunization reminders for parents who have children under six years and published in English between 2015 and 2025.MethodsDatabase and hand-searching of journals and gray literature will be carried out to retrieve pertinent articles. Studies that meet the inclusion criteria will be eligible for selection. The process of selecting eligible studies will then be summarized on a PRISMA-ScR chart. Collated in data-extraction tables will be authorship information, publication date, methods and findings. The findings, key arguments and themes will be analyzed using a thematic analysis and summarized using a narrative summary.ConclusionThis review will contribute to the existing knowledge on parental preferences for vaccine reminder strategies and their usefulness in increasing childhood vaccination rates. The findings will inform and improve public health strategies aimed at boosting vaccine uptake among children.

There were 285 new cases of measles in the U.S. in 2024. Measles, also known as rubeola, is an infectious disease that is highly contagious and affects mostly children. Common symptoms of measles include fever, runny nose, sore throat, cough, and a rash. Although death rates from measles have decreased around the world, it is still responsible for around 81,000 deaths worldwide per year. Measles vaccination The main reason for the decrease in measles cases and deaths is due to high vaccination rates. The widely used MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps, and rubella and is safe and effective. In 2023, around 91 percent of adolescents in the U.S. aged 13 to 17 years had received an MMR vaccination. However, in recent years there has been a rise in measles cases in many parts of the world due to vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy Vaccine hesitancy refers to a refusal or reluctance to have children vaccinated, despite the overwhelming evidence that vaccines are safe and effective. This hesitancy comes from a misunderstanding of the ingredients in vaccines and how they work, a mistrust of doctors and pharmaceutical companies, and belief in the unfounded associations of vaccines with other diseases and disorders.

The best model is the Text Only SVR (RBF Kernel) without sentiment, indicated as Ref below. The null hypothesis is that the mean of this best reference model is greater than (or in other words, worse than) the means shown in Column 4 of Table 4. Models specified with (*) do not include any zip code-level features. The p-values for the predictive models, with and without sentiment as a feature, are reported as without sentiment / with sentiment. Since cross-validation is not applicable for the constant-value baseline models, they are excluded in this table.

As of 2017, around 91.5 percent of children in the U.S. aged 19 to 35 months had been vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). The MMR vaccine is widely used around the world and is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for adults who don’t have immunity and all children.

Measles

The number of cases of measles in the United States has dropped significantly since the introduction of the MMR vaccination. However, there has been a recent increase in measles cases, due to the growth of the vaccine hesitancy movement. Despite claims from this movement, the MMR vaccine is safe and effective. One dose of the MMR vaccine is around 93 percent effective against measles, while two doses is 97 percent effective.

Mumps

The MMR vaccine has resulted in a similar decrease in the rate of mumps cases in the U.S. One dose of the MMR vaccine is 78 percent effective against mumps, while two doses is 88 percent effective. Although the MMR vaccine is safe and effective, like any medicine it can have side effects. Common side effects include fever, a mild rash and temporary joint pain and stiffness.

In 2019, around 13 percent of U.S. adults aged 30 to 49 years believed certain vaccines cause autism in children. This statistic shows the percentage of U.S. adults who thought certain vaccines cause autism in children as of 2019, by age.