Do Pediatricians Tell Parents About
Vaccine Risks?
Less that half of physicians
reported initiating discussion regarding vaccine contraindications and less
than 10% discussed the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Lack of
time was considered the greatest barrier to vaccine risk/benefit
communication.
The majority of providers
reported discussing some aspect of vaccine communication but 40% indicated
that they did not mention risks.
Physician respondents reported
having received only a moderate amount of training in vaccine risk/benefit
communication, but they expressed
only a modest interest in
acquiring continued education in this area.
When compared across provider
types, pediatricians reported significantly less training in communicating
risks and benefits of procedures. Although nearly 70% percent of physicians
believed that parents needed to know contraindications, yet physicians
reported that they actually discussed contraindications in less than one
half of visits.
Nearly 1 in 4 physicians
indicated that "parents would be unnecessarily alarmed" and a surprising
number of providers believed "parents did not want to know" vaccine
risks/benefits.
In general, these findings
suggest that there is a serious mismatch between legal mandates for
risk/benefit communication, providers' perception of what parents needed to
know, and actual provider vaccine risk/benefit communication practices.
Pediatrics Vol. 107 No. 2
February 2001, p.e17
DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:
This study clearly shows the
reality that physicians believe that they need to communicate to parents
many aspects of vaccine risks and benefits. The study suggests that current
time constraints makes this impractical. However, it is clear that since
most believe so strongly in the vaccines, they have not put in any effort to
acquire information about the vaccines potential dangers.
So, if you haven't made a
decision about vaccination yet, please don't rely on your pediatrician to
give you all the answers. Odds are they haven't taken the time to update
themselves on the risks.
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