The Oregon Immunization Survey of Two Year Olds sheds light on people who believe that children should not be immunized. We identified children who received no immunizations, including those whose parents gave religious or ideologic reasons for not immunizing their children.
On November 1, 1996, a stratified random sample of 3149 Oregon births age 19-35 months old (DOB 11/1/93-4/1/95) was selected. We oversampled less populous regions of the state and certain racial and ethnic groups. After exclusions, 80.4% (2452/3048) of their families were interviewed and their immunization histories verified. A child was considered fully immunized with 4 or more doses of DTP, 3 or more doses of poliovirus vaccine and 1 or more doses of measles-containing vaccine. The outcome variable was the number of immunizations each child in the study had received by the sample selection date.
Of the 2452 children in the study, 30 (1.2%) had received no DTPs, poliovirus vaccines or measles-containing vaccines. We asked the parents of unimmunized children to check one of seven boxes answering the question "This child has not had baby shots because..." Parents of 7 (0.3%) gave religious reasons ("because of religious beliefs") and parents of 8 (0.3%) gave ideologic reasons (e.g., "because baby shots do more harm than good") for their children having received no immunizations.
Although they attract a disproportionate amount of public health attention, a very small proportion of parents refuse to immunize their children.
Learning Objectives: N/A
Keywords: Immunizations, Survey
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