Missed opportunities to immunize: psychosocial and practice correlates.
BACKGROUND
The goal of this pilot study was to correlate missed opportunities to immunize young children with providers' psychosocial characteristics and self-reported immunization practices.


METHODS
In a population of children aged 0 to 36 months, missed opportunities to immunize were established for a sample of 28 providers, who also responded to a valid and reliable instrument measuring the aforementioned variables.


RESULTS
Missed opportunities were significantly lower among providers with higher vested interest (r=-0.45, p=0.02) and tended to be lower among providers with more positive attitudes toward having all children properly immunized at every healthcare visit (r=-0.33, p =0.09). Neither knowledge nor perceived barriers correlated significantly with missed opportunities. Providers missed opportunities to immunize in over half of the visits studied (mean, 0.58), yet all of them reported always immunizing at preventive and follow-up visits, almost all (96.3%) at chronic illness visits, and a majority (78.6%) at acute care visits. As a result, none of the self-reported immunization practices was significantly correlated with missed opportunities.


CONCLUSIONS
Missed opportunities appear to be best predicted by motivational psychosocial factors and not by knowledge or perceived barriers. Self-reported immunization practices do not correspond to actual immunization behavior.
Prislin
Radmila
R
Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 92182-4611, USA. rprislin@mail.sdsu.edu
Sawyer
Mark H
MH
De Guire
Michelle
M
Brennan
Jesse
J
Holcomb
Kathy
K
Nader
Philip R
PR
D002675:Child, Preschool; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires