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Twenty percent of pediatricians dismiss families who refuse vaccines
A significant portion of pediatricians reported that they often or always dismiss families if parents refuse to have their children vaccinated, according to recent research in Pediatrics.
“Almost all physicians encounter parents who refuse at least one vaccine in the infant series,” Sean T. O’Leary, MD, MPH, of the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Sciences at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Children’s Hospital Colorado, and colleagues wrote. “Although few family physicians dismiss families for vaccine refusal, about one in five pediatricians report doing so, and there is a great deal of regional variation.”
Sean T. O’Leary
O’Leary and colleagues assessed survey results from 534 members of the AAP and the American Academy of Family Physicians between June and October 2012. Physicians responded to whether or not they often or always dismissed vaccine-refusing families, how often they encountered these families, their philosophical exemptions policy, state of practice, and degree of difficulty obtaining nonmedical exemptions.
Eighty-three percent of physicians reported that during a typical month, at least 1% of parents refused one or more vaccines for their infant, while 20% reported that more than 5% of parents refused vaccines. Twenty-one percent of pediatricians responded that they always or often dismissed families when one or more infant vaccines were refused. By comparison, only 4% of family physicians dismissed families in similar situations.
Survey results also showed that 51% of all physicians required parents to sign a form in the event that a vaccine was refused.
Pediatricians who responded that they would dismiss vaccine-refusing families were more likely to be in private practice (adjusted OR = 4.9; 95% CI, 1.4-17.19), from the South (aOR = 4.07; 95% CI, 1.08-15.31) or practiced in a state without laws pertaining to philosophical exemptions (aOR = 3.7; 95% CI, 1.74-7.85).
“Although many have decried the practice of dismissing families for refusing vaccines on ethical grounds, few have actually studied it,” O’Leary and colleagues wrote. “Because many pediatricians still dismiss families despite recommendations to the contrary, this practice should be better explored and understood both for its causes and its intended and unintended consequences.” – by David Costill
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
