AYŞE KARAASLAN, ENGİN ERSİN ŞİMŞEK, CEREN ÇETİN, EBRU ŞENOL, YASEMİN AKIN
Southern Clinics of Istanbul Eurasia - 2023;34(1):73-77
INTRODUCTION: Immunization is the most effective preventive health measure known to protect children from serious diseases and death. However, in both developed and developing countries, parents may hesitate to vaccinate their children for various reasons. With this study, we aimed to report the attitudes of parents on this issue in our hospital, where patients from all socioeconomic and cultural levels applied due to its location. METHODS: A questionnaire was applied to the parents of children aged 014 years, who applied to the pediatric outpatient clinics in the 3rd level education and research hospital between April 2016 and October 2016, to evaluate their knowledge and attitudes about vaccination. Results: It was observed that 98.1% of the parents participating in the study applied the Ministry of Health vaccination schedule. 29.5% of the parents stated that they experienced side effects after vaccination. The most common side effects are fever (19%), tenderness at the vaccination site (3.8%), diarrhea (2.9%), rash at the vaccination site (1.9%), and convulsion (1.9%), respectively. 75.2% of the parents stated that they did not hear anything negative about vaccines. The reported negative effects are fever (4.8%), allergy (4.8%), vomiting (3.8%), sterility (3.8%), paralysis (2.9%), seizure (1.9%), autism (1%), aluminum content (1%), and disease (1%), respectively. It was observed that 94.3% of the parents wanted their children to be vaccinated, 1.9% did not want to be vaccinated because of the negative news in the media, 1.9% because of different discourses among doctors, and 1.9% because they thought it would be better to pass the diseases naturally. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: It was seen that most of the parents applied the vaccination schedule of the Ministry of Health. We should not forget the importance of vaccination to protect both individual and public health, and measures should be taken to eliminate unnecessary prejudices of parents in this regard.
