11 percent intend to spread out the recommended inoculations, survey finds
MONDAY, Nov. 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Three-quarters of first-time expectant mothers plan to follow the recommended vaccination schedule for their children, according to survey results published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
But the survey of 200 American women pregnant with their first child also found that 10.5 percent planned to spread out the recommended vaccination schedule, 4 percent planned to have their child receive some but not all of the recommended vaccines, and 10.5 percent were still undecided in their second trimester of pregnancy.
The study — conducted between June 2014 and September 2014 — did not include first-time mothers who said their children would not receive any of the recommended vaccines, a group believed to account for about 1 percent of parents. First-time mothers who weren’t planning on following the recommended vaccination schedule said they got most of their information about childhood vaccines from online sources or family and friends.
These results show the need to find ways to provide these women with information from pediatricians and family doctors, according to study coauthor Glen Nowak, Ph.D., director of the Center for Health and Risk Communication at the University of Georgia. The university conducted the study with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Most of the moms-to-be indicated they were interested in information on childhood vaccines, but many were not actively looking for such information, and very few had received any from a health care provider,” Nowak said in a university news release.
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