Over the past year, as measles and whooping cough outbreaks made national headlines, parents' views on vaccines have become more favorable, according to a nationally representative poll conducted by The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor.
In May, researchers administered the survey to a randomly selected, stratified group of more than 1,400 parents, asking them about their opinions on the benefits and safety of vaccines, compared with one year ago.
Highlighted below are five findings from the study that providers should know.
1. Roughly one-third (34 percent) of parents think vaccines have more benefit than they did one year ago, 61 percent say they believe vaccines have about the same benefit as they did last year, and 5 percent think vaccines have less benefit.
2. A quarter (25 percent) of parents believe vaccines are safer than they believed them to be one year ago, 68 percent say their perceptions of vaccine safety have stayed the same and 7 percent believe that vaccines are less safe than they believed one year ago.
3. Approximately 35 percent of parents report more support for daycare and school vaccine requirements than one year ago, while 6 percent are less supportive and 59 percent say their support has not changed.
4. Two out of every five parents (40 percent) believe the risk of measles for children in the U.S. is higher than what it was one year ago, while 45 percent say the risk is about the same and 15 percent say the risk of measles is lower than it was one year ago.
5. Regarding whooping cough, 37 percent of parents believe the risk is higher for children than it was one year ago, 49 percent believe the risk is the same and 15 percent think the risk is lower.
"Media coverage of outbreaks over the past year, accompanied by messages about vaccines for whooping cough and measles, may be swaying parents' opinions toward stronger beliefs in the positive aspects of vaccines," said Matthew M. Davis, MD, director of the National Poll on Children's Health and professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the U-M Medical School Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit. "The impact of such shifts in perception will ultimately be measured by whether more parents vaccinate their kids."
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