Sources of parental knowledge about the safety of vaccinations in Poland

Abstract

There has been a recent increase in the number of parents refusing vaccination for their children in many European countries, including Poland. This observation necessitates the need to understand parental knowledge in regard to mandatory vaccination of children in these countries. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2016 on 1239 parents or legal guardians of preschool and school children in the Silesian Voivodship (Poland) to evaluate their hesitancy in acquiescing to their children mandatory immunization and the relation to this habit in regard to the use of informational sources on children vaccination system in Poland. Medical doctors often provide the basic source of information about vaccination to parents. About one-third (29%) of the respondents from the survey deemed the qualification system for vaccination as either inadequate or bad. 16.9% of the respondents surveyed declared that information received from physicians regarding vaccinations were either incomplete or unconvincing. Results of multivariable analyses confirmed that respondents are less likely to seek information about mandatory vaccinations from medical professionals and more often to misjudged vaccination’s qualification system. Participants who used less informative sources (e.g. leaflets) and those with a lower level of education were more likely to avoid vaccination. Greater emphasis on the quality of information provided by medical professionals is crucial in order to avoid doubts about vaccination and to create proper attitudes and adherence to vaccination schedules.

Vaccine confidence and timeliness of childhood immunisation by health information source, maternal, socioeconomic, and geographic characteristics in Albania

“…Lower confidence in childhood immunisation (higher hesitancy) observed in this study among mothers who use mainly the Internet/social media for health information was described as well in France [22], while studies from Poland [38] and the United States [39] found no association between the Internet as vaccine information source and alternative childhood vaccination schedules. Also other studies indicated an adverse impact of the Internet on childhood immunisation, though not through the same relationship Internet versus vaccine timeliness/confidence but with regard to the role of the Internet in vaccination decisions [24] or perception of vaccine safety/effectiveness [40].…”

Impact of an influenza information pamphlet on vaccination uptake among Polish pupils in Edinburgh, Scotland and the role of social media in parental decision making

“…Considering that the majority of respondents have lived in Scotland for several years, the fact that they consult practitioners in Poland as much as in the UK is an indication that they continue to live in a community heavily influenced by Polish norms and values. In a 2016 cross-sectional survey of parents in Poland, it was found that medical doctors often provide the basic source of information about vaccination to parents, however, 16.9% of respondents declared that information received from physicians regarding vaccinations was either incomplete or unconvincing [27]. This Polish literature confirmed that participants in Poland were less likely to seek information about vaccinations from medical professionals, and participants who used less accurate sources, were more likely to avoid vaccination.…”

Wiedza o autyzmie u polskich adeptów psychologii

“…Students of pharmacy significantly more often identified the appropriate biological factors (polygenetic, nutritional). They did however, also point to vaccines, which is inconsistent with the current state of medical knowledge (Destefano & Thompson, 2004;Uno, Uchiyama, Kurosawa, Aleksic, & Ozaki, 2012), although present in the varied attitudes of mothers towards vaccines (Świętoniowska & Rozensztauch, 2017) and related to their level of education (Kowalska, Gajda, Barański, & Braczkowska, 2018). In contrast, co-morbidities were identified independently of the field of study, with the exception of intellectual disability, which students of pharmacy associated with autism less frequently than students of psychology.…”