Forced Parents’ Decision of Vaccination as a Psychological Ground for an Anti-Vaccination Paradigm

• Main Authors: N. L. Chernaya, V. K. Solondaev, Ye. V. Koneva, S. Ye. Batorshina, O. B. Dadaeva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: "Paediatrician" Publishers LLC 2016-06-01
• Series: Voprosy Sovremennoj Pediatrii
• Subjects: immunizations; voluntary informed consent; decision-making; children; parents
• Online Access: https://vsp.spr-journal.ru/jour/article/view/1608

Background: The existence of anti-vaccination paradigms hampers the vaccination coverage of infants in required for the population immunity formation volume. One of the significant factors of parents' refusal of immunization is that pediatricians don't have evidence-based tactics of interaction with them during the decision-making on their child's vaccination.Objective: Our aim was to study the psychological component of taking voluntary informed consent to vaccination by parents of a child-patient.Methods: Using structured interviews and research methods of problem situations in mothers of children-patients under 1 year, the alternative solutions for vaccination when posing the question in the first and third person were studied.Results: The interview was conducted with 76 mothers, 317 responses in the first person and 252 responses in the third were received according to 10 scenarios of decisionmaking. The received responses that reflect the courses of action were grouped into seven generic alternatives. It was found that 5 of 7 alternatives («get vaccinated,» «refuse vaccination», «falsify vaccination», «just wait, to postpone the decision,» «wait and obtain further consultation») are rarely considered in the first person as compared to the responses in the third person (4 and 8%, p = 0.043), the alternative of «get medical contraindication» in the first person is considered more often, the frequency of the alternative of «wait and keep watch over the child» did not change.Conclusion: The real consent to immunization is mentally stimulated in a large part of the parents. The discrepancy between the relative frequency of the parents-selected alternatives in the first and the third person, as well as a wider range of alternatives considered by parents, in comparison with physicians, indicates the desire of parents to accept psychologically independent, not imposed by a medical professional decision.