Vaccines

Ironically, for another psychology class I am taking I have to design a mini health psychology intervention. Not being able to use backpacks again, the topic I've chosen is vaccines and the fear that some parents have about vaccinating their children. Normally, children receive many vaccinations as they grow up in order to prevent them from contracting diseases that are potentially deadly. And by vaccinating at least 90% of children it helps protect the population as a whole from outbreaks of these diseases by creating herd immunity. However, there is fear, driven primarily by misinformation, that vaccines given to children can result in autism. As a result of this fear parents refuse to have their children vaccinated, leaving them susceptible to many diseases that other children are not. 


At least some of this fear originated with the supposed results of a study that showed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. However, many problems about this study were later uncovered. There was a careful selection of participants whose families already believed that the vaccine caused the autism. The principle investigator was also accused of financial conflict of interest because he received funding from lawyers involved in vaccination lawsuits. Six years after the study was published, almost all of the authors published a retraction of its results. Many other studies, some following thousands of children longitudinally over several years, found no link between vaccinations and the development of autism. Despite this overwhelming evidence to the contrary, parents still hang onto their fears and do not vaccinate their children.


When examining the actions of the parents who decide not to vaccinate their children it is important to keep in mind that they believe they are doing what is best for their children. But in developed countries such as ours, many of the diseases that vaccines prevent have not been seen or experienced in years. For instance, most parents raising children today have never seen a case of polio or smallpox, two diseases that were all but wiped out thanks to the use of vaccines. 


Despite strongly disagreeing with their decision due to the scientific evidence, I do think that their thoughts and decision fits into the Health Belief Model we discussed in class. Not seeing many of the diseases vaccines protect against means that parents have a low perceived susceptibility to them. And this lack of first-hand experience could also reduced any perceived severity that parents acknowledge. Most importantly, the misinformation about the risk of autism can act as a huge perceived barrier. The risk of inadvertently making their child autistic outweighs any perceived benefits of the vaccine.


The focus of my presentation will be on changing the minds of these doubtful parents so that their children are vaccinated along with the rest of the population, protecting them from a myriad of potentially deadly diseases.




References-

Allan MG, Ivers N (2010). The autism-vaccine story: fiction and deception? Canadian Family

            Physician, 56,1013.

Aronson E, Wilson TD, Akert RM. (2007). Social Psychology (7^th Edition). Saddle River, NJ.

Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine, Council on Community Pediatrics (2010).

            Increasing immunization coverage. Pediatrics, 125, 1295-1304.

Price CS, Thompson WW, Goodson B, Weintraub ES, Coren LS, Hinrichsen VL, Marcy M,

Robertson A, Eriksen E, Lewis E, Bernal P, Shay D, Davis RL, DeStefano F (2010). Prenatal and infant exposure to thimerosal from vaccines and immunoglobulins and risk of autism. Pediatrics, 126, 656-664.

Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism. (2004). Washington D.C.: National Academy

            Press.

Gupta VB (2010). Communicating with parents of children with autism about vaccines and

            complementary and alternative approaches. J Dev Behav Pediatr, 31, 343-345.