Pregnant women who received vaccine information through an interactive website monitored by a clinical expert were more likely to vaccinate their children than those who received usual care alone, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published today in the journal Pediatrics. The current research builds upon survey knowledge; a previous Pediatrics study (2011) that found 10 to 15 percent of parents chose to delay or refuse one or more vaccines for their children; and a Kaiser Permanente study in JAMA (2013) that found an increasing number of parents were choosing to delay or refuse one or more vaccines for their children.
This most recent Kaiser Permanente study, conducted in Colorado, examined the impact of a web-based intervention on the vaccination rates of 888 Colorado infants.
Participants were randomly assigned to three study groups: website with vaccine information and interactive social media components (or VSM); website with vaccine information (or VI); or usual care only (UC). Infants of study participants were followed from birth to age 200 days to assess vaccination rates for early childhood vaccines.
Infants of parents in the VSM arm were about twice as likely to be up-to-date on all recommended infant vaccines than infants in the UC arm. Up-to-date status was not statistically different between VI and UC arms, or between the VSM and VI arms.
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