title: Confidence about vaccines in the United States: understanding parents' perceptions.
abstract: The United States has made tremendous progress in using vaccines to prevent serious, often infectious, diseases. But concerns about such issues as vaccines' safety and the increasing complexity of immunization schedules have fostered doubts about the necessity of vaccinations. We investigated parents' confidence in childhood vaccines by reviewing recent survey data. We found that most parents--even those whose children receive all of the recommended vaccines--have questions, concerns, or misperceptions about them. We suggest ways to give parents the information they need and to keep the US national vaccination program a success.
authors.affiliation: Immunization Services Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. akennedy@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lavail
authors.forename: Glen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Basket
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Landry
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States; D014612:Vaccines / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D014612:Vaccines