US parents more hesitant about flu vaccine than routine immunizations
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A survey of 2,176 parents in the United States showed that 25.8% were hesitant about getting their children vaccinated against influenza — far more than the 6.1% who were hesitant about routine childhood vaccinations.
Using a five-point vaccine hesitancy scale, Allison Kempe, MD, MPH, professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado, and colleagues surveyed parents and labeled them as hesitant for any response greater than three. Much of the hesitancy surrounding the influenza vaccination was based on concerns about low vaccine effectiveness, they found.
“This is the first time that a scale specifically created to measure vaccine hesitancy has been used to assess level of hesitancy from parents across the United States and so, I think, it's a bit of a benchmark,” Kempe told Healio.
According to the study, 12% of parents said they were strongly concerned about serious side effects of both routine and influenza vaccinations, whereas 27% of parents somewhat agreed they had concerns.
“I think it's disappointing that we still have this level of concern about safety when vaccines are constantly and very exhaustively being examined for safety,” Kempe said. “Providers need to be prepared for that, which they definitely constantly are encountering.”
Most — 70% — of parents strongly agreed that routine childhood vaccinations are effective, compared with just 26% of parents who felt the same way about the influenza vaccine, which “has important implications for providers as they [try] to vaccinate children,” Kempe said.
“Both parents and providers need to remember that even in years when there's a mismatch between the virus in the vaccine and it's not as effective, it's actually very effective in decreasing severe disease, hospitalizations or mortality,” she said.
Modeling showed that an educational level lower than a bachelor’s degree and a household income of less than 400% of the federal poverty level were associated with hesitancy concerning both routine and influenza vaccinations.
In a related editorial, Annabelle de St. Maurice, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at UCLA, and Infectious Diseases in Children Editorial Board Member Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, suggested “evidence-based messaging” to counter beliefs that vaccines are not safe or effective.
“Communications should be focused on the burden of inuenza in children, rebranding inuenza vaccine as a ‘routine’ childhood immunization, reassurance on inuenza vaccine safety, and discussion of the efcacy of inuenza vaccine in preventing severe disease,” they wrote.
Perspective
Back to TopPaul A. Offit, MD
I think it is reasonable to be skeptical of anything you put in your body or your child's body, like vaccines. That is OK. I think there is a difference between being skeptical and being cynical, so the skepticism does not bother me. I think you should be skeptical. I think you should ask your clinician to provide you with evidence to show that a vaccine is safe or effective.
In the case of influenza vaccine, people hear it is only 50% effective, but if you look at the data in children, meaning children younger than 18 years of age, it is more effective than that. They need to hear that story. I think any time you give a vaccine that must be given every year, it conveys the notion that it is not very good. How good could it be if you have to give it every year?
Now is the time when we need to step back and explain why vaccines are safe and effective and explain that the choice not to get a vaccine is not a risky choice; it's just a choice to take a different risk. That does not bother me, that people are in any sense skeptical about vaccines. What bothers me is when they do not believe anything you tell them, that pharmaceutical companies control everything and that, therefore, no one is to be trusted. That is different.
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