Parents’ Views About the Vaccination Program in Taiwan

To investigate parents’ views about new vaccines, we surveyed the attitudes and awareness toward immunization program among parents of children younger than 14 years in Taiwan. Methods: Parents of children were invited to complete a questionnaire in a tertiary referral medical center in Kaoshiung, s...

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Main Authors: Chia-Wan Tang, Shih-Hui Huang, Ken-Pen Weng, Luo-Ping Ger, Kai-Sheng Hsieh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2011-04-01
Series:Pediatrics and Neonatology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875957211000118
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author Chia-Wan Tang
Shih-Hui Huang
Ken-Pen Weng
Luo-Ping Ger
Kai-Sheng Hsieh
author_facet Chia-Wan Tang
Shih-Hui Huang
Ken-Pen Weng
Luo-Ping Ger
Kai-Sheng Hsieh
author_sort Chia-Wan Tang
collection DOAJ
description To investigate parents’ views about new vaccines, we surveyed the attitudes and awareness toward immunization program among parents of children younger than 14 years in Taiwan. Methods: Parents of children were invited to complete a questionnaire in a tertiary referral medical center in Kaoshiung, southern Taiwan from 2006 to 2008. A total of 535 questionnaires were completed. We used descriptive data for the analysis of parents’ views and attitudes toward the current vaccination program in Taiwan. Results: Of the 535 respondents, most parents (93%) did not think the current vaccination program was satisfactory. Few (approximately 8%) preferred self-paid vaccines. About 63% of parents believed that the new (self-paid) vaccines provided more protection, whereas 48% deemed them too expensive. The most popular reason for preferring the new vaccines was greater protection (73%). One-half of parents considered the new vaccines to be expensive. Regarding parental awareness of side effect of vaccination, fever was the most well known and of greatest concern (91%). Most parents (68%) had good awareness of conjugated pneumococcal vaccines, and only few (13%) had heard of the human papilloma virus vaccine. Most parental information of vaccines came from pamphlets at the hospital (56%). Conclusion: We found the awareness of parents about new vaccines to be insufficient. They also considered the new vaccines to be expensive.
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spelling doaj-art-5f6cbe0e26c24d52b6842cc1be965fa22025-08-20T02:54:51ZengElsevierPediatrics and Neonatology1875-95722011-04-015229810210.1016/j.pedneo.2011.02.009Parents’ Views About the Vaccination Program in TaiwanChia-Wan Tang0Shih-Hui Huang1Ken-Pen Weng2Luo-Ping Ger3Kai-Sheng Hsieh4Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, National Yang-Ming University, TaiwanDepartment of Nursing, Fooyin University, Kaohsiung, TaiwanDepartment of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, National Yang-Ming University, TaiwanDepartment of Medical Education and Research, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, TaiwanDepartment of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, National Yang-Ming University, TaiwanTo investigate parents’ views about new vaccines, we surveyed the attitudes and awareness toward immunization program among parents of children younger than 14 years in Taiwan. Methods: Parents of children were invited to complete a questionnaire in a tertiary referral medical center in Kaoshiung, southern Taiwan from 2006 to 2008. A total of 535 questionnaires were completed. We used descriptive data for the analysis of parents’ views and attitudes toward the current vaccination program in Taiwan. Results: Of the 535 respondents, most parents (93%) did not think the current vaccination program was satisfactory. Few (approximately 8%) preferred self-paid vaccines. About 63% of parents believed that the new (self-paid) vaccines provided more protection, whereas 48% deemed them too expensive. The most popular reason for preferring the new vaccines was greater protection (73%). One-half of parents considered the new vaccines to be expensive. Regarding parental awareness of side effect of vaccination, fever was the most well known and of greatest concern (91%). Most parents (68%) had good awareness of conjugated pneumococcal vaccines, and only few (13%) had heard of the human papilloma virus vaccine. Most parental information of vaccines came from pamphlets at the hospital (56%). Conclusion: We found the awareness of parents about new vaccines to be insufficient. They also considered the new vaccines to be expensive.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875957211000118awarenessparents’ attitudevaccine
spellingShingle Chia-Wan Tang
Shih-Hui Huang
Ken-Pen Weng
Luo-Ping Ger
Kai-Sheng Hsieh
Parents’ Views About the Vaccination Program in Taiwan
Pediatrics and Neonatology
awareness
parents’ attitude
vaccine
title Parents’ Views About the Vaccination Program in Taiwan
title_full Parents’ Views About the Vaccination Program in Taiwan
title_fullStr Parents’ Views About the Vaccination Program in Taiwan
title_full_unstemmed Parents’ Views About the Vaccination Program in Taiwan
title_short Parents’ Views About the Vaccination Program in Taiwan
title_sort parents views about the vaccination program in taiwan
topic awareness
parents’ attitude
vaccine
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875957211000118
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