{"id":9396,"date":"2019-06-28T09:22:43","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T07:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/?p=9396"},"modified":"2019-06-28T09:22:43","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T07:22:43","slug":"parental-beliefs-towards-scheduled-immunization-in-estonia-and-factors-associated-with-vaccination-behaviour-results-of-an-internetbased-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/parental-beliefs-towards-scheduled-immunization-in-estonia-and-factors-associated-with-vaccination-behaviour-results-of-an-internetbased-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Parental beliefs towards scheduled immunization in Estonia and factors associated with vaccination behaviour: results of an internetbased survey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Background.<\/strong> The decrease of vaccine preventable diseases has led to vaccine hesitancy and even refusal of vaccination in many countries, but evidence-based information about the beliefs Estonia is still missing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aim.<\/strong> We aimed to identify Estonian parents` vaccination behaviour, their beliefs towards the scheduled immunization programme, and the socio-demographical and socioeconomic factors associated with the vaccination behaviour. Methods. A web-based anonymous questionnaire was carried out in 2017 (November 8th to December 7th). Altogether 1,557 parents (roughly 0.1% of the Estonian population) with the youngest child aged \u22645, were enrolled. According to the questionnaire, we divided the respondents into three groups: Vaccinators (V; 72.3%), Uncertain group (U; 11.9%), and Refusers (R; 15.8%). In order to identify the independent risk factors associated with the vaccination behaviour, univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were used, and to measure beliefs, the Likert scale (5-point) was used.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results.<\/strong> The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed higher odds to vaccinate their children among parents with lower income (0\u2013800 and 801\u20131500 vs. \u22651501 \u20ac; OR=1.52; 95% CI 1.03\u20132.25 and OR=1.59; 95% CI 1.15\u20132.2, respectively). The R, on the contrary, had more likely higher income and \u22652 children in the family. The main factor associated with being in the U group was the parents\u2019 age (&gt;35 vs 25\u201334 years; OR=1.73; 95% CI 1.25\u20132.38). The opinions regarding vaccination were significantly different in all groups. The majority of the parents believed that vaccines help to prevent diseases (78.7%; V 96.4%, U 65.1%, R 8.1%), and vaccine-prevented diseases are serious (74.3%; V 90.9%, U 62.4%, R 7.3%). Only 27.9% (V 8.2%; U 57.5%, R 95.9%) were concerned about immunizations overloading the child&#8217;s immune system and would cause allergic reactions (29.3%; V 11.6%, U 51.6%, R 93.5%). The U and R parents were significantly less likely to report confidence in medical and public health sources, compared to the V parents; healthcare education was not associated with the vaccination behaviour.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusions.<\/strong> Despite the fact that Estonian vaccination rates are relatively high, the current study shows strong hesitancy regarding the safety of vaccination. As vaccine safety is perceived as a concern by many parents (including the ones that are U and R), it is important to build trust in vaccination in order to prevent further increase in refusal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background. The decrease of vaccine preventable diseases has led to vaccine hesitancy and even refusal of vaccination in many countries, but evidence-based information about the beliefs Estonia is still missing. Aim. We aimed to identify Estonian parents` vaccination behaviour, their beliefs towards the scheduled immunization programme, and the socio-demographical and socioeconomic factors associated with the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1540],"class_list":["post-9396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9397,"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396\/revisions\/9397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eestiarst.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}