Parental attitudes toward varicella vaccination

Objectives: To evaluate parental health beliefs regarding the varicella vac cine and to identify potential areas for interventions designed to increase immunization against varicella. Setting: Data were collected in the offices of pediatricians who are member s of the Puget Sound Pediatric Research Network, a regional practice-based research group in the Seattle, Wash, area. Methods: At the time of an office visit, parents were asked to complete a s urvey on the varicella vaccine. Respondents indicated level of agreement wi th 10 health belief statements regarding the immunization using a 6-point L ikert scale from "completely agree" to "completely disagree"; responses wer e subsequently transformed to an agree ordinal scale from 1 to 6, with 6 co rresponding to highly positive beliefs. A composite health belief score for each respondent was computed by averaging responses to all statements. Par ents also were asked to indicate the level of influence of their child's pe diatrician on their decision to use the varicella vaccine. Results: A total of 598 surveys were completed. Generally, parents agreed t hat the vaccine was worthwhile even if the only benefit was preventing a ra re complication. Conversely, the majority of parents disagreed that varicel la vaccine was worthwhile if the only benefit was preventing lost time from work, and that the immunization was worthwhile even if immunity was not li felong. Parents who indicated that their child's pediatrician's opinion sig nificantly influenced their decision to use the vaccine had higher composit e health belief scores than those who indicated less influence (median scor es, 4.3 and 4.0, respectively; P<.001). Conclusions: In this sample, parents had more positive health beliefs about the ability of varicella vaccine to prevent rare complications than to sav e time lost from work. These data also suggest that pediatricians call have an important role in increasing positive health beliefs about the vaccine. These findings may help future interventions to increase the immunization rats against varicella.