Sl. Udovic et al., PARENT REPORTS ON WILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATIONS DURING URGENT CARE VISITS, Pediatrics (Evanston), 102(4), 1998, pp. 471-475
Objectives. To 1) describe whether parents would be willing to accept
childhood immunizations at urgent care visits; and 2) identify predict
ors of parents' willingness to accept childhood immunizations at urgen
t care visits. Design and Participants. Cross-sectional telephone surv
ey of parents of children aged 18 to 24 months who were underimmunized
according to a computerized immunization tracking system and who had
recently made an urgent care visit in a regional group-model health ma
intenance organization in Northern California. Chart review was conduc
ted to confirm immunization status and to identify contraindications t
o vaccination. Results. Of the 424 eligible participants, 351 (83%) co
mpleted interviews. Children with contraindications to vaccination and
children who were actually up-to-date at the time of the urgent care
visit were excluded, leaving 263 families in the final analysis. Among
these parents, 75% said they would have been willing to have their ch
ild immunized at the urgent care visit in question if the physician ha
d suggested it. An additional 11% said they would have accepted vaccin
ation if the physician told them that the shot would be safe and stron
gly encouraged them to accept it. Overall, 86% :reported they theoreti
cally would have accepted an immunization during the urgent care visit
. In the multivariate analysis, the strongest predictors of stated wil
lingness to accept shots at the urgent care visit were the parent: 1)
not being aware that their child was underimmunized (odds ratio [OR] 3
.5, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6-7.7); 2) perceiving that the chi
ld was not very sick at the visit (OR 1.8, 95% CI, 1.1-3.0); 3) being
less concerned about the risk of shots (OR 1.8, 95% CI, 1.2-2.5); and
4) being of nonwhite race (OR 3.6, 95% CI, 1.6-7.7). Income and educat
ion were not significantly associated with reported willingness to acc
ept immunization. Conclusions. We conclude that most parents of underi
mmunized toddlers report being willing to accept immunizations during
urgent care visits if the clinician recommends it. More effective ways
of alerting providers in urgent care settings when immunizations are
due, such as indications on a chart or registration form, hold promise
for improving immunization coverage rates. p://www.pediatrics.org/cgi
/content/full/102/4/e47.