Expanding the National Immunization Survey to Evaluate Parental Concerns about Vaccine Safety: What's in the Parental Concerns Module?

Background:
Background: Parents who have concerns about vaccine safety or efficacy may delay or refuse the administration of vaccines for their children. More research is needed to (i) identify and understand the reasons for their concerns, (ii) evaluate the association between having concerns and vaccination coverage, and (iii) track concerns over time.

Setting:
Setting: Parents of children aged 19-35 months of age who are sampled by the National Immunization Survey (NIS) are being asked questions about their concerns about vaccines. Those questions are referred to as the Parental Concerns (PC) module and are being asked to parents sampled by the NIS between July 2008 to June 2009.

Population:
Population: Parents of infants aged 19-35 months in the U.S.

Project Description:
Project Description: Data collected by the NIS PC module include questions on parents' perceptions about the necessity, safety, and efficacy of vaccines; satisfaction with information about vaccines given by their child's vaccination provider; satisfaction with their relationship with their child's vaccination provider; influences on their vaccination decisions; and past refusal to vaccinate or request to delay the administration of vaccines for their child as well as which vaccines were refused or delayed.

Results/Lessons Learned:
Results/Lessons Learned: The Parental Concerns module will provide important information on beliefs that may effect immunization rates. The module may be repeated in subsequent years in the NIS to evaluate trends in those concerns. Information obtained from the module may be used by CDC and others to help develop better materials to communicate with parents who have vaccination concerns.