Childhood Vaccine Attitude and Refusal among Turkish Parents

Abstract

We aimed to understand and resolve anti-vaccine attitudes by examining the factors associated with vaccine attitudes and exploring potential strategies to improve childhood vaccination rates. Between 2014 and 2021, a total of 628 families refused vaccination in Adiyaman. A total of 300 families accepted visits and were visited. During the visits, the families were administered a questionnaire to determine the reasons for vaccine rejection and their opinions on the matter. While providing general information about the vaccine, parents were encouraged to reconsider their decision, and at the end, parents completed the questionnaire. The questionnaire included sociodemographic questions, reasons for vaccine refusal, and a vaccine attitude scale. Among the participants in the study, 9.3% were convinced about the vaccine. The mean vaccine attitude scale score was calculated as 23.6 ± 2.5 (min = 15–max = 29). Significantly higher rates of persuasion were observed among fathers (17.3%) compared to mothers (7.7%) (p = 0.038). Participants who had received some vaccinations had a higher rate of persuasion (11.6%) compared to those who had not received any vaccinations (2.6%) (p = 0.02). Childhood vaccine refusal is a complex issue that has been the subject of numerous studies. Studies on this subject will increase awareness of vaccines.

Vaccination Approaches of Primary Healthcare Personnel and Their Communication Levels with Parents Having Childhood Vaccine Hesitancy

“…Vaccines have saved the lives and prevented the disability of hundreds of millions of children and are one of the most effective methods of preventing infectious diseases and their complications [4]. While vaccine-preventable diseases have almost been eradicated in the world, some diseases have started to be seen again due to vaccine instability or refusal, which has increased rapidly especially in recent years [4][5][6][7]. This situation poses a serious risk not only individually but also socially, especially in terms of losing the gains achieved in terms of child health.…”

Knowledge, Beliefs, and Behaviors of Turkish Parents about Childhood Vaccination

“…The World Health Organization (WHO)'s Global Vaccine Action Plan 2011-2020 aims to increase the coverage to over 90% for all vaccines in the national vaccination program in all countries [7]. Despite that, vaccine hesitancy is one of the most prominent problems for vaccination coverage [8,9]. The gradual increase in the number of vaccine refusal cases has led to a decrease in vaccination rates and an increase in the frequency of vaccine-preventable diseases [10][11][12].…”

“…For this reason, childhood vaccination rates are directly related to the knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors of the parents. The most common reasons for parents to refuse vaccinations include a lack of trust in the content of the vaccine [16], inadequate vaccination information [17,18], fear of vaccine side effects [9,19], incorrect beliefs about vaccinations [11], religious reasons [9,20], not having access to vaccination services [21], cultural differences [22], and/or negative news in the media about vaccinations [23,24]. Recent studies emphasize that the decrease in the vaccination rate is due to parents' refusal or hesitation on vaccination [10,12,25].…”