Common attitudes about concomitant vaccine injections for infants and adolescents in Flanders, Belgium.
Quantitative information on parents' preferences regarding multiple vaccine injections and on work-loss due to vaccination is important to guide decision making on the use of combination vaccines for universal vaccination. Our survey in families of 1347 toddlers (18 -- 24 months) and 1315 adolescents residing in Flanders, Belgium, revealed common attitudes in both age groups. The majority of parents would allow maximum two injections in one visit. 39% were not willing to pay anything to avoid a concomitant injection, whereas the remainder mentioned amounts around a median of c.20. The responses were hardly influenced by the socioeconomic determinants studied and the concordance between the number of concomitant injections parents would allow and their willingness-to-pay assessed by an open-ended question was limited, which suggests that more sensitive quantification using other methods would be useful. Work-loss due to vaccination was assessed for infants only and was rare (4.5%).
Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp, Campus Drie Eiken, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium. heidi.theeten@ua.ac.be
Heidi
H
Theeten
Niel
N
Hens
Marc
M
Aerts
Corinne
C
Vandermeulen
Mathieu
M
Roelants
Karel
K
Hoppenbrouwers
Pierre
P
Van Damme
Philippe
P
Beutels
D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001530:Belgium; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D007115:Immunization Schedule; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014611:Vaccination / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*