In recent years, parents have become more disparaging towards childhood vaccination. One group that is critical about the National Immunization Program (NIP) and participates less comprises parents with an anthroposophical worldview. Despite the fact that various studies have identified anthroposophists as critical parents with lower vaccination coverage, no research has been done to explore the beliefs underlying their childhood vaccination decision-making. We conducted a qualitative study using three focus groups ( ) of parents who visit an anthroposophical child welfare center. Our findings show that participants did not refuse all vaccinations within the Dutch NIP, but mostly refused the Mumps, Measles, and Rubella (MMR) vaccination. Vaccination decisions are influenced by participants’ lifestyle, perception of health, beliefs about childhood diseases, perceptions about the risks of diseases, perceptions about vaccine effectiveness and vaccine components, and trust in institutions. Parents indicated that they felt a need for more information. Sufficient references should be provided to sources containing more information about childhood vaccination, especially about the effectiveness of vaccines and vaccine components and the risks, such as possible side effects and benefits of vaccination. This may satisfy parents’ information needs and enable them to make a sufficiently informed choice whether or not to vaccinate their child. 1. Introduction In recent years, parents have become more disparaging towards childhood vaccination [1]. Different studies show reasons why parents are critical and sometimes refuse vaccination for their children. These include anxiety about side effects, the perception that vaccine-preventable diseases are not serious, and a lack of trust in herd immunity [2]. This suggests that parents who refuse vaccination are concerned about long-term health problems as a result of vaccination [3] and have doubts about the safety of vaccines [4]. However, these factors vary between different groups of parents who may refuse vaccination. One of the groups who is critical about the National Immunization Program (NIP) and participates less comprises parents with an anthroposophical worldview. Anthroposophy is a spiritual movement that was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher. In anthroposophic care, health is viewed as a matter of body, soul, and spirit, and a balance between these three. There are anthroposophical medical practices in 80 countries around the world [5] and anthroposophy has
References
[1]
S. Blume, “Anti-vaccination movements and their interpretations,” Social Science and Medicine, vol. 62, no. 3, pp. 628–642, 2006.
[2]
A. L. Benin, D. J. Wisler-Scher, E. Colson, E. D. Shapiro, and E. S. Holmboe, “Qualitative analysis of mothers' decision-making about vaccines for infants: the importance of trust,” Pediatrics, vol. 117, no. 5, pp. 1532–1541, 2006.
[3]
P. Bennett and C. Smith, “Parents attitudinal and social influences on childhood vaccination,” Health Education Research, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 341–348, 1992.
[4]
A. M. Kennedy, C. J. Brown, and D. A. Gust, “Vaccine beliefs of parents who oppose compulsory vaccination,” Public Health Reports, vol. 120, no. 3, pp. 252–258, 2005.
[5]
G. Kienle, H. Kiene, and H. U. Albonico, Anthroposophic Medicine, Schattauer, 2006.
[6]
M. Wadl, A. Siedler, W. Kr?mer et al., “Measles transmission from an anthroposophic community to the general population, Germany 2008,” BMC Public Health, vol. 11, no. 1, article 474, 2011.
[7]
J. S. Alm, J. Swartz, G. Lilja, A. Scheynius, and G. Pershagen, “Atopy in children of families with an anthroposophic lifestyle,” The Lancet, vol. 353, no. 9163, pp. 1485–1488, 1999.
[8]
T. J. Zuzak, I. Zuzak-Siegrist, L. Rist, G. Staubli, and A. P. Sim?es-Wüst, “Attitudes towards vaccination: users of complementary and alternative medicine versus non-users,” Swiss Medical Weekly, vol. 138, no. 47-48, pp. 713–718, 2008.
[9]
S. Kasper, H. Holzmann, S. W. Aberle et al., “Measles outbreak in Styria, Austria,” Euro Surveillance, vol. 14, no. 40, pp. 10–12, 2009.
[10]
E. Duffell, “Attitudes of parents towards measles and immunisation after a measles outbreak in an anthroposophical community,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 55, no. 9, pp. 685–686, 2001.
[11]
E. van Velzen, E. de Coster, R. van Binnendijk, and S. Hahné, “Measles outbreak in an anthroposophic community in The Hague, The Netherlands, June-July 2008,” Euro Surveillance, vol. 13, no. 31, p. 18945, 2008.
[12]
F. Woonink, “Objections against vaccination: the perspective of those who refuse,” Infectious Diseases Bulletin, vol. 20, pp. 50–51, 2009.
[13]
L. Mollema, J. M. Staal, J. E. Van Steenbergen, T. G. W. M. Paulussen, and H. E. De Melker, “An exploratory qualitative assessment of factors influencing childhood vaccine providers' intention to recommend immunization in the Netherlands,” BMC Public Health, vol. 12, no. 1, article 128, 2012.
[14]
E. A. Van Lier, P. J. Oomen, H. Giesbers, I. H. Drijfhout, P. A. A. M. de Hoogh, and H. E. de Melker, “Vaccinatiegraad Rijksvaccinatieprogramma Nederland [Vaccination coverage of the National Immunization Programme in the Netherlands],” Tech. Rep. 210021014/2011, Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands, 2011.
[15]
V. Braun and V. Clarke, “Using thematic analysis in psychology,” Qualitative Research in Psychology, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 77–101, 2006.
[16]
T. G. W. Paulussen, F. Hoekstra, C. I. Lanting, G. B. Buijs, and R. A. Hirasing, “Determinants of Dutch parents' decisions to vaccinate their child,” Vaccine, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 644–651, 2006.
[17]
L. Bond and T. Nolan, “Making sense of perceptions of risk of diseases and vaccinations: a qualitative study combining models of health beliefs, decision-making and risk perception,” BMC Public Health, vol. 11, article 943, 2011.
[18]
K. F. Brown, J. S. Kroll, M. J. Hudson et al., “Factors underlying parental decisions about combination childhood vaccinations including MMR: a systematic review,” Vaccine, vol. 28, no. 26, pp. 4235–4248, 2010.
[19]
N. T. Brewer, G. B. Chapman, F. X. Gibbons, M. Gerrard, K. D. McCaul, and N. D. Weinstein, “Meta-analysis of the relationship between risk perception and health behavior: the example of vaccination,” Health Psychology, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 136–145, 2007.
[20]
S. Tickner, P. J. Leman, and A. Woodcock, “Factors underlying suboptimal childhood immunisation,” Vaccine, vol. 24, no. 49-50, pp. 7030–7036, 2006.
[21]
S. Hilton, M. Petticrew, and K. Hunt, “‘Combined vaccines are like a sudden onslaught to the body's immune system’: parental concerns about vaccine “overload” and “immune-vulnerability”,” Vaccine, vol. 24, no. 20, pp. 4321–4327, 2006.
[22]
D. A. Gust, A. Kennedy, S. Wolfe, K. Sheedy, C. Nguyen, and S. Campbell, “Developing tailored immunization materials for concerned mothers,” Health Education Research, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 499–511, 2008.
[23]
D. A. Gust, A. Kennedy, I. Shui, P. J. Smith, G. Nowak, and L. K. Pickering, “Parent attitudes toward immunizations and healthcare providers: the role of information,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 105–112, 2005.
[24]
A. M. Kennedy and D. A. Gust, “Parental vaccine beliefs and child's school type,” Journal of School Health, vol. 75, no. 7, pp. 276–280, 2005.
[25]
European Vaccine Manufacturers, “Survey regarding the Perception of Vaccines and Vaccination,” International Summary Report 41039032, 2004.
[26]
U. Heininger, “An internet-based survey on parental attitudes towards immunization,” Vaccine, vol. 24, no. 37–39, pp. 6351–6355, 2006.
[27]
P. Davies, S. Chapman, and J. Leask, “Antivaccination activists on the world wide web,” Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 22–25, 2002.
[28]
C. Betsch, “Innovations in communication: the Internet and the psychology of vaccination decisions,” Euro Surveillance, vol. 16, no. 17, pp. 1–6, 2012.
[29]
A. Kata, “Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm—an overview of tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement,” Vaccine, vol. 30, no. 25, pp. 3778–3789, 2012.
[30]
C. E. Basch, “Focus group interview: an underutilized research technique for improving theory and practice in health education,” Health Education Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 411–448, 1987.
[31]
E. Hak, Y. Sch?nbeck, H. De Melker, G. A. Van Essen, and E. A. M. Sanders, “Negative attitude of highly educated parents and health care workers towards future vaccinations in the Dutch childhood vaccination program,” Vaccine, vol. 23, no. 24, pp. 3103–3107, 2005.
[32]
D. W. Stewart, P. N. Shamdasani, and D. W. Rook, Focus Groups, Theory and Practice, Sage, 2006.