Technically Speaking: The Immunization Platform for 16-year-olds Is Easily Overlooked — Here Are Some Resources to Help!

To remind healthcare professionals that age 16 is an officially recommended time for an immunization visit, ACIP highlighted vaccines at this age when it published the 2017 Recommended Immunization Schedule for Children and Adolescents 18 Years or Younger. By adding gray shading to the “16 years” column heading on the official schedule, ACIP emphasized the importance of this age platform, on a par with the previously established vaccination platforms at 4–6 years and 11–12 years (also gray shaded). The vaccines needed at 16 years of age are MenACWY #2, MenB and influenza, and, if not already up to date, HPV catch-up.

To assist providers in communicating the important vaccines recommended for 16-year-olds, the Immunization Action Coalition and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) have partnered to develop a new one-page handout titled “You’re 16…We recommend these vaccines for you!” that can be given to teen patients or their parents. This patient education sheet utilizes a colorful, easy-to-understand format to describe the vaccines recommended at this age, as well as the impacts of the diseases the vaccines protect against along with the recommended number and timing of doses.

This is the first patient educational tool designed specifically to help inform patients and their parents about the important immunization visit for 16-year-olds.

Resource list

Immunization platform for 16-year-olds

• “You’re 16 . . . We recommend these vaccines for you!” from the Immunization Action Coalition  (IAC) and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM)
• Webinar: “Adolescent Immunization Update and the 16-Year-Old Platform” presented by William L. Atkinson, MD, MPH, on July 10, 2017, from IAC: Archived webinar | Webinar slide set

• Position Statement: Establishing an Immunization Platform for 16-Year-Olds in the United States from SAHM
• Call to Action: Adolescent Immunization: Understanding Challenges and Framing Solutions for Healthcare Providers from the Unity Consortium
• Call to Action: Addressing New and Ongoing Adolescent Vaccination Challenges from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases

Clinical tools

• Recommended Immunization Schedule for Children and Adolescents Aged 18 Years or Younger, United States, 2017, from CDC
• Summary of Recommendations for Child/Teen Immunization (Age birth through 18 years) from IAC
• Meningococcal Vaccine Recommendations by Age and Risk Factor for Serogroups A, C,W, or Y Protection from IAC
• Meningococcal Vaccine Recommendations by Age and Risk Factor for Serogroup B Protection from IAC
• Screening Checklist for Contraindications to HPV, MCV4, MenB and Tdap for Teens from IAC
• Standing orders templates you can adapt for vaccinating teens with vaccines recommended for 16-year-olds:
  • MenACWY
  • MenB
  • HPV
  • Influenza
• Top 10 Ways to Improve Adolescent Immunization Rates

Additional immunization resources for adolescents and their parents

• Immunization Information for Teens from IAC’s website for the public
• Preteen and Teen Immunization Resources (includes factsheets, flyers, posters, podcasts, videos) from CDC
• Vaccinations for Preteens and Teens, Age 11–19 Years patient handout from IAC; also available in seven languages
• Vaccines and Teens: The Busy Social Years booklet from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center
• HPV Vaccine: A Guide for Young Adults IAC patient handout; also available in Spanish