Interventions to increase vaccine uptake in prisons: A global systematic scoping review

Background And Objective: Lack of vaccine uptake is a key global challenge in controlling the spread of infectious diseases in prisons. Based on the international research project “Reaching the hard-to-reach: Increasing access and vaccine uptake among prison populations in Europe (RISE-Vac)” funded by the EU Health Program, we will report the implementation of interventions to increase vaccine uptake among people who live and work in prisons. Methods: Operationalizing the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews” criteria, we searched five databases of peer-reviewed literature—PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane library, Science Direct, and EBSCO—as well as 14 databases of grey literature to access publications between 2012 and 2022. Suitable publications were reviewed by two researchers independently and the quality of these publications was assessed through established quality assessment tools. Results: Of the 11, 281 publications identified and reviewed, 17 met the inclusion criteria. For people who live in prisons, the following interventions have been implemented to improve their vaccine uptake: 1) knowledge dissemination through educational courses and open focus group discussion; 2) distribution of learning materials, e.g., posters, factsheets, pamphlets; 3) implementing rapid-schedule vaccination services; 4) revision of the existing vaccination protocols; and 5) prioritizing these individuals in national vaccination programs. For juveniles, the development of virtual forums with youth, guardians, and community partners has been adopted to increase vaccine uptake in prisons. For people who work in prisons, e-learning courses and follow-up information through email communication are the main interventions implemented to increase their vaccination uptake. Conclusion: Considering that most of the people who live in prisons will eventually return to their community and that those who work in prisons return to their community daily, increasing vaccination uptakes as per the measures above should be a key priority for public health investment.