Are Recent Medical Graduates More Skeptical of Vaccines?
Rates of delay and refusal of recommended childhood vaccines are increasing in many U.S. communities. Children's health care providers have a strong influence on parents' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about vaccines. Provider attitudes towards immunizations vary and affect their immunization advocacy. One factor that may contribute to this variability is their familiarity with vaccine-preventable diseases and their sequelae. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of health care provider year of graduation with vaccines and vaccine-preventable disease beliefs. We conducted a cross sectional survey in 2005 of primary care providers identified by parents of children whose children were fully vaccinated or exempt from one or more school immunization requirements. We examined the association of provider graduation cohort (5 years) with beliefs on immunization, disease susceptibility, disease severity, vaccine safety, and vaccine efficacy. Surveys were completed by 551 providers (84.3% response rate). More recent health care provider graduates had 15% decreased odds of believing vaccines are efficacious compared to graduates from a previous 5 year period; had lower odds of believing that many commonly used childhood vaccines were safe; and 3.7% of recent graduates believed that immunizations do more harm than good. Recent health care provider graduates have a perception of the risk-benefit balance of immunization, which differs from that of their older counterparts. This change has the potential to be reflected in their immunization advocacy and affect parental attitudes.
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. mmergler@jhsph.edu.
Michelle M
MM
Hughes
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. worenst@emory.edu.|Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. worenst@emory.edu.
Saad B
SB
Omer
Nicholas School of Environment & Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. William.pan@duke.edu.
William K Y
WK
Pan
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. amnavar@gmail.com.|Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27705, USA. amnavar@gmail.com.
Ann Marie
AM
Navar-Boggan
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Walter
W
Orenstein
Seattle Children's Hospital & Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. edgar.marcuse@seattlechildrens.org.
Edgar K
EK
Marcuse
Child Health Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98115, USA. uncjat@u.washington.edu.
James
J
Taylor
Office of Immunization and Child Profile, Washington State Department of Health, Olympia, WA 98504, USA. Pat.deHart@doh.wa.gov.
M Patricia
MP
deHart
American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, USA. terrellcline@gmail.com.
Terrell C
TC
Carter
Kaiser Family Foundation, Washington, DC 20005, USA. adamico@kff.org.
Anthony
A
Damico
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. nhalsey@jhsph.edu.
Neal
N
Halsey
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. dsalmon@jhsph.edu.
Daniel A
DA
Salmon
health care provider/services; health care surveys; vaccines