Is one minute enough to convince parents to vaccinate their child?

A growing number of parents refuse childhood vaccination. This situation may be caused by many reasons, but surely the lack of parental knowledge is one of them. A physician, as the most reliable source of information about vaccination, plays an important role in parental education. How can we successfully inform parents about vaccinations, when faced with primary care visit being too short? The aim of this study was to assess the impact of three types of information about pneumococcal vaccine on parental decision-making.

The children were enrolled based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The parents received one of three types of vaccination information: simple oral, extent oral and written one. The endpoint of the study was the length of time between the day parents were informed by physician and the day first dose of vaccine was administered.

The percentage of vaccinated children was: 12.8% for written information, 14.7% for extended and 20.8% for simple one. The simple information was significantly associated with increased chances for vaccination in the following groups: children with a birth weight <3355 g (p<0.025), born with a gestational age <40 weeks (p<0.015) and in the group with lower healthcare utilization (p<0.020). The extended information was significantly associated with increased chances for vaccination in the group of chronically ill mothers (p<0.045).

Physicians should provide parents with personalized immunization information. One minute may be sufficient to convince parents to vaccinate their child, especially if healthcare utilization of family is low. Chronically ill parents should be given extended information. Discussion about vaccinations with parents should not be replaced by written vaccination information.