A national study gives an idea of how many U.S. parents are hesitant to have routine vaccines, and especially influenza vaccines, administered to their children.
The results, published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, showed that 6.1% of parents surveyed are hesitant about routine immunizations completed during childhood.
Twelve percent of parents strongly agreed, and 27% somewhat agreed, that they had concerns over the side effects by either type of vaccines. However, in contrast, 70% of those surveyed strongly agreed that routine vaccinations are effective, versus only 26% for the flu vaccine.
“Our study provides the first national estimates of hesitancy about routine childhood and influenza vaccination among representative samples of U.S. parents of children, using a scale specifically developed and validated to assess vaccine hesitancy internationally,” said professor Allison Kempe of the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine.
More than 2,100 parents participated in the online panel-style survey that was conducted in February 2019, after the World Health Organization’s decision to add vaccine hesitancy as one of the 10 leading threats to global health last year.
The hesitancy, particularly for flu shots, is very prevalent in the U.S., the study found.
During the 2018-19 flu season, only 62.6% of children between 6 months and 17 years old received a dose of the influenza vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was an increase of 4.7 percentage points than the previous flu season in 2017-18 (57.9%).
Kempe, the lead author of the survey, said it is still concerning that more than 40% of children in the U.S. are not vaccinated for the flu, especially as the growing amount of “preventable diseases” outbreaks continue to rise.
The CDC reported that from Oct. 1, 2019, to April 4, 2020, between 24,000 to 62,000 people died due to the flu.
“Low vaccination rates among children for influenza vaccine makes influenza seasons more severe for all portions of the population, since children are a major conduit of the disease to vulnerable parts of the population, such as the elderly,” Kempe said.
Income, educational impact
Parents with an educational level lower than a bachelor’s degree and a household income less than the federal poverty level are more likely to have hesitancy with vaccines in general, according to the survey.
Families living in the western parts of the U.S., as well as parents with preschool-age children, tend to be the most hesitant about childhood vaccines.
Though race and ethnicity did not play a major role in childhood vaccines, the responses showed that Latino parents were less hesitant about flu vaccinations than white, non-Latino parents.