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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