A study published in the journal Pediatrics aggregates the responses of parents to multiple surveys asking why teenagers are not up to date on vaccinations and concludes that those reasons are (not surprisingly) very different for HPV than they are for the other two shots. Parents whose teenagers had not received a Tdap booster or a first or follow-up MCV4 generally appeared unaware that the vaccinations were recommended. Some said their provider had not recommended a vaccine; others said themselves that the vaccine was “not needed or necessary.” Parents whose children hadn’t received a first HPV vaccine or completed the series were also likely to say the vaccine was “not needed or necessary.” But parents whose children were not up to date on HPV vaccinations and who did not intend to seek out the vaccine (41.1 percent in 2008, increasing to 43.9 percent in 2010) were far more likely to cite safety concerns or side effects as a reason for the decision not to vaccinate. The number of parents giving safety concerns as a reason increased from 4.5 percent in 2008 to 16.4 percent in 2010.
Posted March 21, 2013 at 9:15pm in hpv vaccination sex ed prejudice children usa cdc cervical cancer
