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AAP: Pediatricians should engage, educate vaccine-hesitant parents
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The AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases and Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine recently released a clinical report that supported pediatricians’ continued communications with vaccine-hesitant parents about vaccine safety and efficacy for their children.
Based on results from the AAP’s Periodic Survey of Fellows conducted in 2006, 75% of pediatricians encountered parents who refused a vaccine for their children, while a 2013 follow-up survey indicated that 87% of pediatricians reported similar parental hesitance. The surveyed pediatricians reported that the proportion of parents who refused one or more vaccines increased from 9.1% to 16.7% during the interval between surveys.
“Physicians stated that the most common reasons parents refused vaccines were that they believed that vaccines are unnecessary and that they had concerns about autism,” Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, FAAP, the Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt chairwoman in pediatrics at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “In both 2006 and 2013, pediatricians reported that they were able to convince approximately 30% of parents to vaccinate their children when they initially refused.”
The report by Edwards, an Infectious Diseases in Children Editorial Board member, and colleagues provided recommendations to pediatricians to continue to engage vaccine-hesitant parents in one-on-one conversations about vaccine safety and efficacy, encourage parents to modify their decisions against vaccination and provide other health care services to their children.
In a study conducted separately in 2011 by other researchers, 44% of parents reported concerns over multiple injections causing unnecessary pain to their children during single well-visits, 34% felt uneasy that their children received too many vaccines during one visit, 26% of parents had fears that their children may develop autism after vaccination, 13.5% were concerned that vaccines provoked chronic illness, and 13.2% stated that vaccines were not fully tested before being approved.
The committee’s report, however, said most vaccine-hesitant parents “are responsive to vaccine information, consider vaccinating their children and are not opposed to all vaccines.”
Edwards and colleagues recommend that pediatricians:
- Tell parents about the vaccine testing process for safety and efficacy.
- Tell parents that vaccines are monitored actively after licensure.
- Engage vaccine-hesitant parents in one-on-one contact to discuss their concerns.
- Consider applying other health services to their children.
- Emphasize the importance of the current vaccination schedule for child ages.
“The clear message parents should hear is that vaccines are safe and effective, and serious disease can occur if your child and family are not immunized,” the researchers wrote. “Pediatricians should keep in mind that many, if not most, vaccine-hesitant parents are not opposed to vaccinating their children; rather, they are seeking guidance about the issues involved, beginning with the complexity of the schedule and number of vaccines proposed.” – by Kate Sherrer
Disclosure: Edwards reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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