Abstract
Objective
School-located influenza vaccination (SLIV) may be instrumental in achieving high
vaccination rates among children. Sustainability of SLIV programs may require third-party
billing. This study assessed, among parents of elementary school students, the attitudes
about SLIV and billing at school, as well as factors associated with being supportive
of SLIV.
Methods
We conducted a survey (April 2010 to June 2010) of parents of 1000 randomly selected
primarily low-income children at 20 elementary schools at which SLIV with billing
had occurred.
Results
Response rate was 70% (n = 699). Eighty-one percent agreed (61% strongly) they “would
be okay” with SLIV for their child. Many agreed it was better to get vaccinated at
their child's doctor's office because they could take care of other health issues
(72%) and the doctor knows the child's medical history (65%). However, an equal percentage
(47%) thought the best place for influenza vaccination was the child's doctor's office
and the child's school. Twenty-five percent did not want to give health insurance
information necessary for billing at school. Factors independently associated with
strongly supporting SLIV included parental education of high school or less (relative
risk 1.30; 95% confidence interval 1.09–1.58), Hispanic ethnicity (1.25; 1.08–1.45);
believing the vaccine is efficacious (1.49; 1.23–1.84); and finding school delivery
more convenient (2.37; 1.82–3.45). Having concerns about the safety of influenza vaccine
(0.80; 0.72–0.88) and not wanting their child to be vaccinated without a parent (0.74;
0.64–0.83) were negatively associated.
Conclusions
The majority of parents were supportive of SLIV, although parental concerns about
not being present for vaccination and about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine
will need to be addressed.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 21,
2014
Received:
October 22,
2013
Footnotes
Dr Daley received an honorarium from McGraw-Hill publishers for writing a textbook chapter on immunizations. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The findings and conclusions are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
