Examination of parents refusing administration of childhood vaccinations: Turkey example

Abstract

Background. Vaccination is an important health service that reduces the morbidity and mortality of infectious diseases. In our study, it was aimed to examine the knowledge, attitude, risk perception of parents about vaccine refusal, and the vaccination status of their children in a province of Turkey with a low socioeconomic level. Materials and methods. In the study designed in a cross-sectional type, 105 parents (participation rate: 80.2 %) who rejected the vaccine were reached. Results. The most refused vaccine by the parents is DaBT-İPA-Hib (90.5 %) and the least rejected vaccine is BCG (58.1 %). It was determined that who thought vaccines have no benefits (p = 0.003), those who were doubtful about the content of the vaccine (p = 0.001), those who did not want the vaccine due to their religious beliefs (p = 0.006), and those who believed in natural immunity (p = 0.002) were less convinced about vaccinating their children at a statistically significant level than the other group. The vaccine with the highest rate is HAV (35.0 %, n = 7), and the vaccine with the lowest rate is BCG (8.3 %, n = 1) in terms of the rate of vaccination that they declare to be convinced to have it. Conclusions. When evaluated on the causes of vaccine refusal and persuasion, the primary source of information is provided by health workers with scientific evidence through different communication methods (social media, etc.) should be reached.

Keywords

• immunization schedule, vaccine refusal, parents, children, persuasion