OP-029 Adherence of Russian and Indian parents towards childhood immunisation

Aim The insufficiency of vaccination coverage might contribute to poor parental adherence to vaccination programs. We aimed to assess the attitudes and awareness of parents in Russia and India regarding childhood immunisation due to inadequate vaccination coverage in these countries (less than 90%). Material and Method A total of 1620 parents from Russia (Irkutsk city), and 214 parents from India (Kerala state), participated in the cross-sectional multicenter comparative study through the online survey using Google forms. Data were compared using the χ2 test, differences were considered statistically significant at p<0.05. Results Russian and Indian parents demonstrated good adherence towards childhood immunization, since more than 95% of them vaccinated their child (98.0% [95% 97.2–98.5] and 98.6% [95% CI 95.9–99.5] correspondingly, p=0.80). Sources of information about diseases that can be prevented by vaccines, vaccine safety, and potential side effects were different for parents from two countries (p<0.0001). Russian parents got informed basically from pediatricians (80.9%, 95% CI 79.0–82.6) in contrast to Indian parents who had got information about childhood immunisation from the two main sources including pediatricians (32.2%, 95% CI 28.7–35.9) and mass media with the internet (44.8%, 95% CI 41.0–48.6). Remarkably that only 4.0% (95% CI 3.2%-5.0) of Russians were looking to find answers online. And despite the fact that the vast majority of Russians used to ask doctor about vaccines 71.2% (95% CI 68.9–73.3) of them expressed a desire for additional knowledge. While Indians also experienced a lack of information, it was not as pronounced, with 63.1% (95% CI 56.4–69.3, p=0.01) seeking more information. Conclusions Although parents from India and Russia have shown good adherence towards childhood immunisation, there is still a noticeable lack of information about vaccines.