Transferability of vaccination interventions from a community perspective: One size does not fit all

Abstract Background Removing health system barriers to childhood vaccination is an urgent matter in the migrant community in Greece, the Turkish and Moroccan communities in the Netherlands, the Ukrainian minority in Poland, and the marginalized Roma community in Slovakia. The objective of this study was to select and adapt potentially transferable evidence-based interventions for HPV and MMR vaccine uptake in partnership with the underserved communities. Methods Using a participatory approach, we assessed transferability of six pre-selected interventions with the Population, Intervention, Environment and Transfer (PIET-T) models: All countries investigated two interventions with trained community members to support vaccination as health promoters. Greece and the Netherlands included a school-based vaccination program. The Netherlands added two interventions addressing providers’ HPV vaccine communication, and Slovakia a multilevel intervention. Results We identified barriers and facilitators for successful intervention transfer in each of the target contexts. The transferability analysis showed that an intervention with health promoters is potentially transferable with adaptations in all countries. Principles of trust in the educator, tailored and trustworthy information, help in navigating the health system for vaccination and easy access at no cost are transferable key elements in all contexts. Adaptations refer to the intervention elements that need to be tailored to specific contextual needs. School-based vaccination was nowhere transferable. Health provider training needs to be culturally sensitive and adapted to the Dutch system. The multilevel intervention in Slovakia is not fully transferable. Conclusions Participatory transferability analysis was essential for decision-making and intervention adaptation. All countries independently selected a health promoter intervention as having potential to remove the identified health system barriers in the respective context.