Immunising Children in Primary Care in the UK - What are the Concerns of Principal Immunisers?

Abstract

Objective To determine the levels of concern about risks associated with childhood immunisations among principal immunisers in general practice. Design Self-administered postal questionnaire survey. Setting South & West Devon Health Authority. Participants Eighty-eight/102 general practices: 78 practice nurses, 7 general practitioners, 3 health visitors. Of these, 73 (83 per cent) were the principal immuniser for the general practice and comprise the study sample. Results A third of the principal immunisers (34.2 per cent) were concerned about at least one of the immunisations given to children. Most of the concern reported focused on the measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations. Issues mentioned in the reasons given for concern included concerns about safety (risks, reactions and side effects), about parents, about adverse media and publicity, about research evidence, doubts about the need for the second MMR and personal experiences. Conclusion The role of principal immunisers is crucial especially when many parents are undecided about immunisation when they attend a clinic. Addressing their concerns may contribute to improving overall confidence in the immunisation programme.

The benefit of the doubt or doubts over benefits? A systematic literature review of perceived risks of vaccines in European populations

“…Eleven articles studied concerns about childhood vaccination in general [143][144][145][146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154]. The most common concerns were about adverse reactions [144][145][146][147][148][150][151][152][153][154].…”

“…The most common concerns were about adverse reactions [144][145][146][147][148][150][151][152][153][154]. Other studies reported that participants believed that vaccine preventable diseases are not dangerous [147,148,150] but instead are beneficial for child development [149,150].…”

“…Some also believed that risks of vaccination outweigh benefits [147,150,154]. Studies found that interviewed participants reported inadequate information and evidence [143,144,147,153] and disagreements between experts on vaccine safety [144].There were beliefs that vaccines do not work or have a short duration of protection [143,146,150,154], supporting the perception that vaccines are not useful [146,153,154].…”

“…Studies found that parents reported being influenced by friends and families [150], negative reports in the media [150,153], previous negative personal experience [150], and society [152]. Other concerns mentioned in studies were about combination vaccines [147], adjuvants [150], children receiving too many vaccines [145], and injecting foreign substances into the body [152].…”

What are the beliefs and perceptions of practice nurses’ influence about the uptake of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine?: An integrative literature review

“…The importance of healthcare professionals having a consistent approach in promoting vaccines in national immunization programmes has been endorsed by the VENICE survey (Haverkate et al., ). Practice nurses have been identified as the principle immunizer in some areas in the UK (Maconachie & Lewendon, ). Research to date is sparse on the influence of practice nurses on parental immunization decision‐making, as are practice nurse beliefs and perceptions about the MMR vaccine.…”