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Release Date: Dec. 15, 2003
PARENTS SHOW INCREASED CONCERN
ABOUT VACCINE SAFETY
By Aaron Levin, Science Writer
Health Behavior News Service
Four out of five doctors surveyed in 2000 reported at least one instance
of parents refusing to have a child vaccinated during the previous year,
according to a new study.
More than two-thirds of those doctors said parents showed more concern
regarding vaccine safety than parents did in the past.
Researchers Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Michigan
and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed
data from a survey of 743 physicians. Their findings appear in the January
issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Most of the physicians said they recorded the parents’ refusal of
vaccines in the child’s medical record, Freed says. Responses varied
by specialty, however. Pediatricians were more likely than family physicians
to provide additional information regarding vaccines to parents or to
discuss the issue with parents at later visits.
Some parents may refuse to have their children immunized
due to vaccine safety fears, whether those fears are real, unsubstantiated
or even disproved,
he says. Parents’ most common fears focused on short-term reactions
to the shots and pain from multiple injections. The doctors surveyed
said that parents were also concerned about immune system effects, long-term
serious complications, and the overall need for vaccines.
Many questions about the benefits and risks of immunization
are addressed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s series of Vaccine
Information Statements. However, Freed says, the physicians said that parents
often expressed worries about issues not contained in the statements — such
as alleged (but now-discredited) associations with autism or multiple
sclerosis.
“Both pediatricians and family physicians must be sensitive to parents’ concerns
and well prepared to respond to such concerns,” he says. “Although
physicians should provide Vaccine Information Statements at every vaccine
visit — as required
by law for universally recommended childhood vaccines — they may
also need to provide supplementary materials to address all parental concerns
adequately.”
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Health Behavior News Service: (202) 387-2829 or www.hbns.org.
Interviews: Contact Kara Gavin, media coordinator, at (734) 764-2220 or kegavin@med.umich.edu.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine: Contact the editorial office at (619)
594-7344.
Center for the Advancement of Health
Contact: Ira R. Allen
Director of Public Affairs
202.387.2829
press@cfah.org
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