Paediatria Croatica, Vol. 62 No. 1, 2018.
Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.13112/PC.2018.4
Parental attitudes about vaccination collected at several primary schools in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
Tatjana Čulina
orcid.org/0000-0001-5404-8761
; Nastavni zavod za javno zdravstvo Primorsko-goranske županije
Sandra Anđelić Breš
Sandro Kresina
Maja Sepčić
Abstract
Introduction: After several years of work in school medicine, we have realized that vaccination is becoming increasingly questionable,
unclear and confusing for many parents. In conversation with parents, we noticed that they had insuffi cient knowledge about
vaccination, that they often looked for information in unreliable sources, and were confused by the increasingly powerful and
aggressive anti-vaccination movements.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine parents’ knowledge and attitudes about vaccination and to evaluate where they
were seeing health professionals, how clear we were and how much they trusted us.
Materials and methods: The survey involved 109 parents. They were parents of children from three primary schools (fi rst and eighth
grades) from Rijeka, Sveti Matej, Hreljin and Podmurvice. A questionnaire was prepared with questions related to the knowledge and
attitudes about vaccination and recognition of health service.
Results: Concerning previous vaccinations, 92% of respondents stated that they knew what vaccination their baby had received. Half
of the parents (52%) did not worry about any vaccination procedures, but nearly half of the parents (41%) said they were worried
about the vaccine side eff ects. If vaccination was not mandatory, 86% of the parents would still have their children vaccinated, 9%
would consult a physician, and 5% would not have their children vaccinated.
Conclusion: The study confi rmed the experiential knowledge that most parents had positive attitude towards vaccination and were
willing to have their children vaccinated. The majority of responses revealed that parents felt confused and needed additional counselling.
The duty of the physician, with support of the public health service, is to improve communication, so that it can provide
quality information about vaccination.
Keywords
school medicine, vaccination; parental attitudes; counselling service; communication
Hrčak ID:
201185
URI
Publication date:
30.3.2018.
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