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Parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in Sweden: A cross-sectional study

Varicella infection is a highly contagious disease which, whilst mild in most cases, can cause severe complications. Varicella vaccination is available privately in Sweden and is currently being reviewed for inclusion in the Swedish Public Health Agency’s national immunisation program (NIP). A cross...

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Autores principales: Arnheim-Dahlström, Lisen, Zarabi, Natalie, Hagen, Karin, Bencina, Goran
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530319/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34673809
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256642
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author Arnheim-Dahlström, Lisen
Zarabi, Natalie
Hagen, Karin
Bencina, Goran
author_facet Arnheim-Dahlström, Lisen
Zarabi, Natalie
Hagen, Karin
Bencina, Goran
author_sort Arnheim-Dahlström, Lisen
collection PubMed
description Varicella infection is a highly contagious disease which, whilst mild in most cases, can cause severe complications. Varicella vaccination is available privately in Sweden and is currently being reviewed for inclusion in the Swedish Public Health Agency’s national immunisation program (NIP). A cross-sectional study of parents of Swedish children aged 1–8 years (n = 2212) was conducted to understand parental acceptance, beliefs and knowledge around varicella infection and vaccination. Respondents generally viewed varicella infection as a mild disease, with only a small proportion aware of potential severe complications. While 65% of respondents were aware of the vaccine, only 15% had started the course of vaccination as of February 2019. Further, 43% of parents did not intend to vaccinate, most commonly due to lack of inclusion in the NIP, but also due to perception of mild disease. Nevertheless, if offered within the NIP, 85% of parents would be highly likely to vaccinate their child. A number of statistically significant differences in awareness and behaviours were observed between sociodemographic subgroups. In general, women were more aware of vaccination (72%) compared to men (58%). Among unemployed or respondents with elementary school education, awareness was below 43%, and among respondents with high income the awareness was above 75%. Similarly, among unemployed or respondents with a low income the vaccination rate was as low as 30% compared with at least 57% among respondents with a high income. Respondents from metropolitan areas, those with university degrees and respondents with a higher income were more likely to be aware of the varicella vaccine and to have vaccinated their child. Whilst inclusion in the NIP is clearly the main driver for uptake, these identified knowledge gaps should inform educational efforts to ensure that all parents are informed of the availability and benefits of the varicella vaccine independent of socioeconomic status.
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spelling pubmed-85303192021-10-22 Parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in Sweden: A cross-sectional study Arnheim-Dahlström, Lisen Zarabi, Natalie Hagen, Karin Bencina, Goran PLoS One Research Article Varicella infection is a highly contagious disease which, whilst mild in most cases, can cause severe complications. Varicella vaccination is available privately in Sweden and is currently being reviewed for inclusion in the Swedish Public Health Agency’s national immunisation program (NIP). A cross-sectional study of parents of Swedish children aged 1–8 years (n = 2212) was conducted to understand parental acceptance, beliefs and knowledge around varicella infection and vaccination. Respondents generally viewed varicella infection as a mild disease, with only a small proportion aware of potential severe complications. While 65% of respondents were aware of the vaccine, only 15% had started the course of vaccination as of February 2019. Further, 43% of parents did not intend to vaccinate, most commonly due to lack of inclusion in the NIP, but also due to perception of mild disease. Nevertheless, if offered within the NIP, 85% of parents would be highly likely to vaccinate their child. A number of statistically significant differences in awareness and behaviours were observed between sociodemographic subgroups. In general, women were more aware of vaccination (72%) compared to men (58%). Among unemployed or respondents with elementary school education, awareness was below 43%, and among respondents with high income the awareness was above 75%. Similarly, among unemployed or respondents with a low income the vaccination rate was as low as 30% compared with at least 57% among respondents with a high income. Respondents from metropolitan areas, those with university degrees and respondents with a higher income were more likely to be aware of the varicella vaccine and to have vaccinated their child. Whilst inclusion in the NIP is clearly the main driver for uptake, these identified knowledge gaps should inform educational efforts to ensure that all parents are informed of the availability and benefits of the varicella vaccine independent of socioeconomic status. Public Library of Science 2021-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8530319/ /pubmed/34673809 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256642 Text en © 2021 Arnheim-Dahlström et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Arnheim-Dahlström, Lisen
Zarabi, Natalie
Hagen, Karin
Bencina, Goran
Parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in Sweden: A cross-sectional study
title Parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in Sweden: A cross-sectional study
title_full Parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in Sweden: A cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in Sweden: A cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in Sweden: A cross-sectional study
title_short Parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in Sweden: A cross-sectional study
title_sort parental acceptance and knowledge of varicella vaccination in relation to socioeconomics in sweden: a cross-sectional study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530319/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34673809
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256642
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