BACKGROUND:
While the percentage of parents choosing exemptions is currently small, given the increases in the availability of exemptions and the proportion of parents claiming exemptions, it is important to assess the support of the general public.

OBJECTIVE:
Identify characteristics of those who agree that parents should be able to receive exemptions from vaccines even if it raises the risk of disease for everyone else.

METHOD:
We analyzed a national survey (HealthStyles) conducted during 2003. We performed multivariate analysis to determine differences between parents who agreed and those who disagreed/neutral that parents should be allowed to get a religious or philosophical vaccine exemption for their child.

RESULT:
Response rate was 69%. There were 3888 of 4085 respondents analyzed , 13% agreed that parents should be allowed to get exemptions for their child. Compared to those who disagreed/neutral, those who agreed were more likely to: 1) disagree that immunizations are important to the health of children (OR = 2.6, 95%CI=1.5, 4.6); 2) report concern that their child’s immune system could be weakened by too many immunizations (OR=1.8, 95%CI=1.2,2.6);, and 3) ask their doctor not to give their child a vaccine (OR=2.0, 95%CI=1.3,3.2). These respondents were also less likely to: 1) have their child fully immunized if it were not required for schools (OR=1.6, 95%CI=1.0,2.6) , trust the government to set policy for childhood vaccines (OR=1.6, 95%CI=1.1-2.3), and trust public health agencies like the CDC (OR= 1.8, 95%CI=1.1,3.0).

CONCLUSION:
A substantial minority of respondents were in favor of exemptions to childhood immunizations despite the risk of disease to everyone else. These people tended to have concerns about immunizations and lack trust in the government to set immunization policy.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Identify the percent of people who agreed that parents should be allowed to get exemptions for their child and their characteristics.