Parent Preferences for Adolescent Vaccine Delivery

Background: Little is known about parents' preferences for adolescent vaccine delivery and acceptance of vaccines other than HPV vaccine.

Objectives: To understand the preferences of parents of adolescents regarding the delivery of Tdap, meningococcal and influenza vaccines.

Methods: We recruited 430 parents of adolescents at 9 primary care practices in upstate NY. Telephone surveys assessed issues related to delivery and acceptance of adolescent vaccines. Chi-square tests assessed associations between parent characteristics and vaccine acceptance, and conditional logistic regression measured parent factors independently associated with vaccine acceptance.

Results: Overall, 83% of parents feel vaccines are very safe, and 85% regard them as very effective. Topics parents wanted their healthcare provider to discuss with them included: side effects (60%), the disease a vaccine protects against (30%), and vaccine effectiveness (12%). In addition to their MD’s office, parents were willing to have their teen be vaccinated in a: hospital ED (80%), public health department (48%), school (39%), teen clinic (32%), and pharmacy (21%). Most parents (81% and 78%) had or would accept Tdap and meningococcal vaccines for their teen. Additionally, 77% of parents would accept annual influenza vaccination for their teen. The adolescent's urban/suburban location, race/ethnicity, and gender were not related to parents' acceptance, but their perception of vaccine safety strongly predicted receipt of Tdap (OR 3.4, p<.001), meningococcal (OR 2.1, p=.02) and annual influenza (OR 2.5, p=.005) vaccines. Also, parents who viewed vaccines as very effective (OR 2.1, p=.05) were more likely to accept Tdap vaccine, parents of older adolescents (OR 1.9, p=.02) were more likely to accept meningococcal vaccine, and parents of publicly insured adolescents (OR 2.2, p=.03) were more likely to accept annual influenza vaccine.

Conclusions:Most parents are accepting of vaccines recommended for adolescents, but building confidence in the safety of vaccination among those who are opposed is a key role for healthcare providers.