Parents Concerned About Vaccine Safety

Most Docs Surveyed Had Parents Who Refused Vaccinations for Their Kids

By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News

Dec. 15, 2003 -- Parents seem increasingly concerned about the safety of the vaccinations recommended for their children, according to a nationwide survey of pediatricians and family physicians.

Ninety-three percent of the pediatricians and 60% of family practice doctors who answered questions in a 2000 survey reported at least one instance of a parent refusing to have a child vaccinated during the previous year, and while more pediatricians report greater increases in parental refusal of vaccinations, family practitioners are seeing fewer refusals by parents. Overall two-thirds of the providers did report a 'substantial' increase in parental concern about the safety of vaccinations. With most reporting an increase in concern over long-term serious complications relating to vaccinations.

"Parents are asking more questions about the safety of the vaccines their children are getting, and that is a good thing," researcher Sarah J. Clark, MPH, tells WebMD. "Our findings point to a need to get the safety message out there, and not let the alarmist [antivaccine] groups frame the debate."

Safety Fears Still Strong

The survey was conducted to assess the impact of the 1999 recall of the newly approved rotavirus vaccine after it was linked to serious gastrointestinal side effects in some infants, as well as contemporaneous news reports linking other vaccines or vaccine additives to a host of childhood problems, including autism.

Childhood immunization expert Paul Offit, MD, tells WebMD that the recent clinical evidence does not support a link between vaccination and autism or any other serious condition. But he does not believe these reports have done much to calm parental fears.

"It is perfectly reasonable for parents to be concerned about the vaccines given to their children," says Offit, who runs the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "But the fact is, vaccines are safer and better tested than anything else we give to children. That includes antibiotics, cough and cold medications, and the so-called natural products that aren't tested at all."

Chicken Pox Vaccine

The survey found that physicians as well as parents had concerns about vaccine safety. Of the 743 doctors who completed the questionnaire, roughly one in three said the rotavirus recall had increased their safety concerns. Some 21% of family physicians and 12% of pediatricians said they occasionally failed to give certain recommended vaccines to their pediatric patients. The findings are reported in the January 2004 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The childhood immunization that caused the most concern among physicians was the varicella vaccine, introduced in the mid-1990s to prevent chicken pox. Almost one-third of family physicians did not routinely give the vaccine to children in their care, citing concerns about potential side effects. There has also been the fear that the protection would wear off over time, leading to the more serious disease known as shingles in adults who were potentially unnecessarily vaccinated as children.

American Academy of Pediatrics spokeswoman Carol J. Baker, MD, says there is, as yet, no evidence that this is a problem, and physicians have increasingly begun to accept the vaccine. There have even been studies assessing its usefulness as a shingles treatment in elderly people with the skin disease.

"I think physicians are far more likely to give the vaccine today than they were even a few years ago," Baker tells WebMD. "Coverage is now approaching 90% -- the same rate seen for other routinely recommended childhood vaccinations."

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