Hesitancy and refusal on vaccination among parents

Vaccination is very important in a children’s life, as this will protect children from serious illness and complications of vaccine preventable disease such as measles, mumps and whooping cough. Some parents have lost their faith and were unable to participate in vaccines and immunization services as a result of argument-inducing incidents that they learn about from various outlets, such as the press. The purpose of the study is to determine the life experiences among mothers of an unimmunized child to address how they view their hesitancy in immunization. The study also provides valuable insight into factors that affect the reasons for defaulting from immunization programs. Descriptive survey design was used to identify parents who were hesitant about the vaccination in terms of behavior, safety, efficacy, general attitude and demographic variables. The researchers used a PACV tool to identify hesitant parents who often follow an alternative vaccine schedule. This study includes three sub-domains: Behavioral Domain, Safety/Efficacy Domain, and General Attitudes Domain. With one hundred forty-six (146) respondents who participated in the study, parent-respondents’ attitudes toward vaccination are marked by a decrease of hesitancy. Respondents are somewhat concerned that their children will receive more shots than is necessary for their health. The remaining parents who postponed their children’s vaccinations and who choose not to have their children vaccinated for reasons other than sickness or allergy based on the findings of the behavioral domain of hesitancy towards vaccination. The delays and non-submission contributed to the hesitancy of parents towards vaccination. This study aims to educate parents about the vaccination and how critical it is to their health, especially that of their children.