Parents' attitudes and behaviours towards recommended vaccinations in Sicily, Italy

Since a long time, Italy has maintained a dual system to administer childhood immunisations, that is a certain number of mandatory vaccinations and a number of recommended vaccinations. The study aimed to explore the issues surrounding parental acceptance or non-acceptance of the recommended vaccina...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC public health 2011-05, Vol.11 (1), p.305-305, Article 305
Main Authors: Coniglio, Maria Anna, Platania, Marco, Privitera, Donatella, Giammanco, Giuseppe, Pignato, Sarina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attitude (Psychology)
Child, Preschool
Female
Guidelines as Topic
Health aspects
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Immunization Programs - utilization
Italy
Male
Parents
Parents - psychology
Psychological aspects
Surveys
Vaccination
Vaccines - administration & dosage
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Summary:Since a long time, Italy has maintained a dual system to administer childhood immunisations, that is a certain number of mandatory vaccinations and a number of recommended vaccinations. The study aimed to explore the issues surrounding parental acceptance or non-acceptance of the recommended vaccinations for children. Parents of children aged 3-5 years of day-care centres in Sicily were asked to fill out an anonymous questionnaire. Determinants of the attitude towards recommended vaccinations and social influence on the decision-making process were assessed using logistic regression analysis. Of the 1,500 selected parents, 81.0% participated in the study. Prior to the survey, the majority of children (97.6%) received recommended vaccines. Most parents (74.4%) received information about vaccinations from Family Paediatricians, showed a good knowledge about the side effects of the vaccines (73.1%), did not worry about their potential dangerousness (53.0%) and would have accepted their children to be vaccinated even if it was not required for day care (84.1%). The majority (79.9%) were not disposed to follow the advises of the anti-vaccination movements. Parents' background characteristics, sources of information and social influence were not significantly associated with parental acceptance of recommended vaccines for childhood. This study suggests that health information by Family Paediatricians is significantly associated with parental acceptance of recommended vaccinations.
ISSN:1471-2458
1471-2458
DOI:10.1186/1471-2458-11-305