PARENTAL acceptance of routine childhood vaccines is trending downward, according to a large national survey looking at factors influencing childhood vaccination.
Conducted as part of the National Vaccination Insights project, the survey included over 2,000 parents of children under five years of age and examined 15 common access and acceptance barriers to childhood vaccination.
The main barrier, reported by almost one in three parents (32%), was "feeling distressed about vaccinating".
Lack of trust in information provided by health professionals (9%), affordability (9%), lack of priority (9%), beliefs about safety (8%) and difficulties getting an appointment (8%) rounded out the top six barriers.
While the proportion of children fully vaccinated was relatively high at 93.7%, parents of partially vaccinated children (4.1% of all parents in this study) were now more influenced by beliefs and concerns about the vaccines themselves than practical issues like cost or travel.
Study lead Dr Jess Kaufman, principal research fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), said the findings reflected an emerging shift in parental attitudes.
"Compared to last year, we're seeing an increase in concerns about vaccine safety and a drop in trust in healthcare providers," Dr Kaufman said.
"While access issues are still relevant, reduced vaccine confidence is now a stronger influence on whether children receive their vaccinations on time."
Vaccine-related messaging from the US appeared to have contributed to increased vaccine hesitancy, MCRI's Professor Margie Danchin pointed out.
"In the last year, parents reported hearing increasingly negative sentiment about vaccines, including from the current US administration," Prof Danchin said.
"This shows that trust in vaccine safety and healthcare providers can be eroded by global factors, not just local information."
Parents in the study whose children were completely unvaccinated were more likely to hold negative beliefs about vaccine safety compared to parents of up-to-date children, (88% vs 5%) and believe that vaccinating does not protect others (84% vs 3%).
"The challenge now is rebuilding trust and ensuring supportive, empathetic conversations with healthcare providers who can respond to parents' concerns," Dr Kaufman concluded.
The research is available HERE. KB
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