Daily Dose: Parent-Pediatrician Vaccine Discussions Lagging?

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On November 28, 2022, we reviewed findings from a national poll on children's health suggesting parent-pediatrician vaccine discussions are lagging.

The survey

The CS Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health report is based on responses from 1483 parents with at least one child aged 6 to 18 years who were asked about discussions with health care providers related to vaccines. Results showed that 1 in 7 parents have not discussed vaccines with their child's regular primary care clinician during the past 2 years. While most (80%) of poll respondents reported they talked with the child’s clinician about vaccines required for school, fewer discussed immunizations for influenza (68%) and COVID-19 (57%).

Clinical implications

"These findings are concerning for the subset of parents who choose to not allow any vaccines for their child, as nearly half are not having any discussions about vaccines with healthcare providers. Lack of discussion prevents these parents from learning about and considering new information that might prompt them to reevaluate the reasons for their decision to not vaccinate their child."

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