Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines: Point Prevalence Survey of Vaccine Hesitancy in an Irish Population

Abstract

Understanding parental attitudes to their children’s vaccination is critical to developing and implementing interventions that address parents’ hesitancy and improve vaccine uptake. The Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) survey is a validated tool for identifying vaccine hesitancy in parents. We evaluated the rate of vaccine hesitancy and areas of concern regarding childhood vaccinations using an adapted version of the PACV survey, in a convenience sample of parents attending a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) outreach event in Ireland, in 2018. A score ≥ 50 identified vaccine hesitant parents. Of 105 parents who completed the survey, the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy was 6.7%, (7/105). Parents had concerns around vaccine side effects (36.2%, n = 38), vaccine safety (20%, n = 21) and the number of vaccines administered (13.3%, n = 14). Parents trusted the vaccine information they received (85.6%, n = 90) and 81.9% (n = 86) believed that the vaccine schedule was good for their child. The findings indicate the presence of vaccine hesitancy in parents in Ireland regarding paediatric vaccines with further research necessary to address parents’ vaccine concerns. Future research should explore further, by qualitative methods, parents’ vaccine concerns. There is also potential to identify vaccine hesitant parents with the PACV survey as a surveillance method in healthcare settings; for example, in community pharmacies, family doctor clinics and out-patient clinics.

Parental Hesitancy towards the Established Childhood Vaccination Programmes in the COVID-19 Era: Assessing the Drivers of a Challenging Public Health Concern

“…In addition, PACV has been shown to have good construct and predictive validity and reliability [ 20 , 26 , 27 ]. Our findings are comparable to the findings of studies conducted in other countries using PACV reporting vaccine hesitancy ranging from as low as 5.9% to 20% or higher [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ].…”

Views on COVID-19 vaccination of young children in Ireland, results from a cross-sectional survey of parents

“…In Ireland, there is generally high vaccine acceptance and low levels of vaccine hesitancy for routine childhood immunisations reflecting a general trust in the immunisation programme and national recommendations. [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] This study is part of a larger cross-sectional national survey of parental attitudes towards childhood vaccinations which shows high vaccine confidence in routine childhood immunisations. Whether parental acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination for younger children would be high remains to be determined.…”

Gap between cognitions and behaviors among children’s guardians of influenza vaccination: The role of social influence and vaccine-related knowledge

“… 14–17 And the experience of vaccination was used to describe VH (i.e., having been vaccinated, having not been vaccinated, or delaying to be vaccinated) as past behavior being identified as a strong predictor of influenza vaccine acceptance and as a decision-making process on vaccination if vaccines are available (i.e., being undecided, indecisive, or not yet having made a decision or plan to vaccinate soon). 1 , 8 , 18 , 19 The concept of VH, which was a complex and multifactorial continuum of hesitancy between vaccine acceptance and refusal, increasingly gained traction. 20 VH has prompted more attention to the fact that, as for all behaviors, vaccination attitudes and decisions should be seen on a continuum, ranging from a small number of vaccine-resistant individuals to a majority who accept to be vaccinated.…”