Knowledge, attitude and behaviour of family physicians on vaccination of children with a history of food allergies

Background
Routine immunisation, one of the most successful public health initiatives, has significantly decreased infectious disease-related mortality and morbidity. Family physicians in Turkey avoid administering vaccines to children who have food allergies and instead refer them to a hospital setting.

Objectives
In this study, we aimed to evaluate the approaches of family physicians when applying vaccines to children with diagnosed or suspected food allergies according to the national vaccination schedule.

Material and methods
This study was carried out between 01.07.2021 and 31.08.2021 with family physicians in the Ankara province. Using questionnaire, the participants were questioned about their sociodemographic characteristics, their vaccination approaches towards patients with diagnoses or suspicions of food allergies and their personal experiences.

Results
A total of 184 family physicians participated in this study, and 82.6% of them stated that they were hesitant about the administrations of vaccines to children with diagnosed or suspected food allergies. Regarding the administration of vaccines, the most concerning food allergies involved eggs (71.7%) and cow’s milk (15.8%). The vaccinations they were mainly concerned about were determined as the measles-rubella-mumps (MMR) (83.7%) and measles (46.7%) vaccines in a suspected or diagnosed presence of an egg allergy and/or cow’s milk allergy, respectively.

Conclusions
This study showed that the surveyed family physicians are hesitant of vaccinating children with diagnoses or suspicions of food allergies and see themselves as intermediately qualified. This can cause referrals of children to higher-level centres for vaccinations, delays in vaccinations and parental vaccine hesitancies.