1 in 7 Parents Avoided Vaccine Talk With Child's Doctor During the Pandemic

Roughly one in seven parents did not discuss vaccines with their child's primary care provider in the last 2 years, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

Results of the nearly 1,500 respondents showed that 82% of parents discussed school-required vaccines with their child's primary care provider during the pandemic, 68% discussed the influenza vaccine, and 57% discussed the COVID-19 vaccine.

Meanwhile, 15% of parents did not have any conversation about vaccines for their children with the primary care provider, and 3% avoided going to the doctor altogether so they didn't have to have the conversation.

"Things are turned upside down," said the poll's co-director Sarah Clark, MPH, of C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at University of Michigan Health in Ann Arbor, in a press statement. "Parents shouldn't feel afraid of raising these conversations; they should go in with the expectation they are going to have a good conversation and go away with the information they need."

"When parents delay or skip visits altogether, they are not prioritizing their child's well-being," Clark added. "Children won't receive screening for medical or mental health problems, and parents will not receive information or guidance about how to keep their child healthy and safe."

Clark says some blame might be placed on misinformation and division over vaccines circulating during the pandemic. Furthermore, visits to the doctor were frequently disrupted because of COVID precautions.

"This may have affected how often parents were talking with their child's regular provider," Clark said. "Without that trusted source of vaccine information and guidance, families may turn to other sources that may be less accurate."

By avoiding the discussion with their provider, parents may have avoided learning about and considering new information that might influence their decision: Of the 6% of parents who said they choose not to vaccinate their children, 43% reported not having talked about vaccines with their child's doctor in the last 2 years.

Conversely, parents who said they talked about the flu or COVID-19 vaccines with their child's doctor had positive experiences. Over 80% said their questions and concerns about vaccines were addressed, and more than 70% said they learned information that was helpful to their decision-making.

One problem that was highlighted in the process was access to vaccines, a problem encountered by one in four poll respondents, citing issues such as having to go to another location for vaccines or problems scheduling appointments.

"Even when parents bring the child in for a visit, they may be told that they need to go elsewhere to get flu and COVID vaccines, requiring extra time and hassle for families," Clark said. Whereas most primary care providers carry school-required vaccines, most do not carry the influenza and COVID-19 vaccines.

The hurdle of needing to go elsewhere may be "getting in the way of having the conversation and getting the vaccine," Clark said. "This situation disrupts the parent-provider discussion around those vaccines."

The poll was conducted by Ipsos on behalf of C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in August and September 2022. It was administered to a randomly selected, nationally representative cohort of 2,023 parents with at least one child. Parents with children under the age of 6 were excluded, and the final report is based on responses from 1,483 parents.

The margin of error for results presented in this report is ±1-3 percentage points and higher among subgroups, Clark and colleagues noted.

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