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Validating Vaccines
What ’ s the most effective way to increase public confidence in vaccines ?
The percentage of parents who refuse all vaccines for their children is small , roughly 3 %. There is , however , an increasing number of parents who refuse or want to defer individual vaccines or use an immunization schedule for their child that is not recommended . That ’ s according to Children ’ s Colorado ’ s primary care pediatrician and health services researcher Allison Kempe , MD , MPH , and pediatric infectious disease specialist Sean O ’ Leary , MD , MPH , who ’ ve been researching vaccine hesitancy for over two decades .
Together with Children ’ s Colorado , the Anschutz Medical Campus , and a myriad of local , regional and national organizations , Drs . Kempe and O ’ Leary are using their research to educate parents and inform providers on how best to address a debate that , at least according to nearly everyone in the medical community , really shouldn ’ t exist — but does .
PREPARING PROVIDERS
“ We ’ ve had a rapid survey unit in place for over 15 years that solicits information from primary care providers , pediatricians , general internal medicine physicians and family practitioners ,” says Dr . Kempe . “ We ’ ve found that a majority of providers — pediatricians especially — are spending more than 10 minutes or even up to 20 minutes discussing vaccines if parents are hesitant .”
Given that an average primary care visit is around 13 minutes , that leaves little to no time for addressing other important topics like nutrition and sleep .
“ And then we go into the next visit over-remembering having just had a difficult conversation , assuming that the next parent is going to be resistant to vaccines ,” says Dr . O ’ Leary . “ It ’ s an unconscious cycle that can lead to under-vaccinating .”
Some providers simply aren ’ t aware of the most effective ways to approach vaccine hesitancy with parents because , up until the last few years , most residency programs weren ’ t teaching residents how . Drs . Kempe and O ’ Leary are working through community outreach , in-person education sessions and web-based modules to help providers communicate about the topic more effectively .
And many residency curricula now include vaccine hesitancy . Part of Dr . O ’ Leary ’ s curriculum at the University of Colorado School of Medicine is resident-led . “ I give them the information , and they craft emails for the other residents who are in training ,” he says . “ So they all get weekly emails about vaccines written by their peers .”
PINPOINTING THE CAUSE OF HESITANCY
Using the World Health Organization ’ s scale , Dr . Kempe and team launched two national surveys over the past year to measure the level of parental hesitancy and pinpoint the cause . The surveys , one for parents of adolescent children and one for younger children , were set up to provide a direct comparison between different types of vaccines .
About 1 in 15 parents qualified as hesitant for routine childhood vaccines . By comparison , almost 1 in 4 parents scored as hesitant for flu and HPV vaccines ( 1 ).
ALLISON KEMPE , MD , MPH
Director , ACCORDS , Anschutz Medical Campus
Ergen Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Outcomes Research , Children ’ s Hospital Colorado
Professor of pediatrics , Division of General Academic Pediatrics , University of Colorado School of Medicine
8 | CHILDREN ’ S HOSPITAL COLORADO