KEYWORDS:
vaccine safety, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs

BACKGROUND:
Understanding knowledge, attitudes and behaviors about vaccine safety issues will help health care providers and public health agencies ensure the continued success of immunization programs.

OBJECTIVE(S):
To determine differences between pediatricians (PDs) and family physicians (FPs) experiences related to vaccine safety issues and parent interactions.

METHOD(S):
Mail survey to a national random sample of 750 Pediatricians and 750 Family Physicians.

RESULT(S):
Response rate was 70% (73% PDs, 68% FPs). In the past year, 92% of PDs, and only 60% of FPs, reported at least one parental vaccine refusal (p=.001); this is likely a function of PDs seeing more pediatric patients. PDs were more likely to report an increase in refusals in the past year (8% vs 18%, p=.001). FPs were less likely than PDs to discuss vaccine refusal at a later visit (62% vs 81%, p=.001) More PDs than FPs reported parental concerns about vaccine safety (table). FPs were more likely than PDs to feel further research was warranted on additives in vaccines (75% vs 65%, p=.007), neurologic conditions not in VIS (63% vs 59%,p=.05), safety of new vaccines (61% vs 50%, p=.006), and potential associations of vaccines with SIDS (50% vs 36%, p=.001).

CONCLUSIONS(S):
PDs experienced more parent vaccine refusals and reported more frequent parent concerns than FPs, while FPs were more likely to believe further research is warranted on vaccine safety issues. Associations between specialty type and vaccine safety experiences may relate to differences in the number of child patients seen by each group; differences in training and perspective; and familiarity with and access to vaccine safety information.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Describe the most frequent vaccine concerns expressed to physicians by parents
Identify 2 differences in vaccine safety knowledge attitudes and behaviors between pediatricians and family physicians