Immunization of children from parents’ perspective

Aim of the study
The aim of the study was to determine parents’ sources of knowledge of vaccinations and their attitude to recommended vaccines, and to assess the effectiveness of educational intervention in terms of encouraging parents to vaccinate their children.

Material and methods
Two methods were used. The first was an original survey collected in health clinics from parents seeing their paediatrician (303 surveys). The second survey had two parts, and they were collected before and after a lecture on recommended vaccines (35 surveys). The answers in both parts were then compared. Several questions with answers on a Visual Analogue Scale were used.

Results
The source of knowledge of vaccination was a doctor/health service (262/303, 86%), family or friends (94/303, 31%), the Internet (86/303, 28%), media (49/303, 16%), and others (11/303, 4%). In the majority of cases (152/303, 50%) the media message was interpreted as encouraging to vaccinate. A doctor/health service remains an ultimately decisive (257/303, 85%) source of information on vaccinations. 55/303 (18%) interviewees had personal experience of side effects of vaccination, and 10 of them erroneously pointed at autism as a side effect in their opinion. Acceptance and willingness for recommended vaccines was increased after the lecture.

Conclusions
Doctors and health service remain the most important and decisive source of knowledge of vaccinations. Being in favour of immunisation depends neither on education nor on place of residence. Parents’ direct or indirect experience of vaccine injury is often misinterpreted (e.g. autism) but plays an important role in making decisions about recommended immunisation. The lecture proved its efficiency in educating parents about recommended vaccines and their benefits.