Comprehension of the São Paulo’s southside population about the vaccination importance

Abstract

Introduction: The individual and collective benefits of vaccination are achieved with a high financial cost and commitment of a large structure involving public vaccine programs and health authorities, besides that the individual performance of health professionals. However, Brazil has been registering a decline in immunization rate since 2016, representing an alarming scenario, although it’s still not possible to define whether we were facing a temporary variation in vaccination coverage or whether it was a real drop. The loss of confidence in vaccines and immunization programs can lead to decreased the vaccine coverage with all its consequences. Objective: To analyze the knowledge and comprehension of the São Paulo’s Southside population above the importance of vaccination. Methodology: Cross-sectional study accomplished through the application of a questionnaire approved by an ethics committee regarding vaccination in 2019 by convenience sampling, totalizing 150 residents of the São Paulo city Southside area. The data were computed in Microsoft Excel, described by relative frequency, and analyzed statistically using the Cochran G test. Results: The sample consisted predominantly of women (82%), age ranging from 18 to 72 (M = 40.7), mainly white (45%), the majority having had a high school education (73%) and with more than 2 children (64%). Regarding vaccination, 86% of respondents have a vaccination card, 99% of parents vaccinate their children, but 94% of them declared incompletion of their children’s vaccination cards, claiming lack of vaccines in the Basic Health Units (UBSs) as the main reason amongst 43% of justifications. As for the population’s perceptions concerning vaccines, 15.5% deemed them unsafe (due to side effects), 4% considered them unnecessary and 16% were opposed to vaccines being mandatory; however, 97.5% believe vaccines do work. The fear of being vaccinated was reported in 16% of respondents, due to fear of the needle, pain, or side effects. It was also informed that active search on vaccination status was held in 65% of the interviewees’ residential territory. The main source of information on vaccination recorded was television/radio (43%), followed by social media, which appeared in 19.5% of responses (p = 0.0000). Vaccines against yellow fever, influenza and measles were the best known by the population (p = 0.0000). Discussion and Conclusion of the Results: The reasons behind vaccine hesitancy presented on this study proves what was exposed on others articles related to this theme: complacency - the participants believe that vaccination is not necessary or should not be mandatory, because they do not realize the risks of preventable diseases. Therefore, some participants did not have vaccination cards, an important instrument for immunization control. A lack of confidence, believing that vaccines are not safe because of possibly having adverse effects, which are propagated by fake news, decreasing the adherence at vaccination campaigns. Lastly, issues related to the convenience, in which part of children’s at this study had vaccination cards incomplete due to the lack of vaccine in the UBSs.