This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Half of US infants fail to receive full series of recommended vaccines
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Data from 2004 to 2008 indicate that about half of the children aged 2 to 24 months did not receive all recommended vaccinations or did not follow the immunization schedule recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, according to an analysis published online this week.
Jason M. Glanz, PhD, of the Institute for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Denver, and Colorado School of Public Health, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study of more than 323,000 children born between 2004 and 2008 who were reported from eight managed care organizations enrolled in the Vaccine Safety Datalink.
Jason M. Glanz
The study results indicate that the number of undervaccinated children increased significantly during the study period, and that the parents of one in eight undervaccinated children intentionally chose not to adhere to ACIP immunization guidelines.
“Although a large majority of parents choose to vaccinate their children on time, the results from our study suggests that an increasing number of parents are choosing alternative immunization schedules for their children,” Glanz told Infectious Diseases in Children. “The public health impact of this behavior could be significant. I therefore believe we need further research on the effectiveness and safety of these alternative immunization schedules.”
Disclosure: Glanz reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts