Parents Call Vaccine Safety Top Priority

ATLANTA — Vaccine safety is the most important consideration for parents in deciding whether their teens should receive recommended vaccines, a national survey of parents showed.

The 557 respondents came from Harris Poll Online's survey panel, and each identified himself or herself as being the parent of at least one child aged 11-17 years, Dr. Stanley Schaffer of the University of Rochester (N.Y.) reported in a poster.

Parents most commonly cited vaccine safety as their single most important consideration in deciding whether their children should be immunized. Concerns about potential side effects were most pronounced for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine; it was cited by 66% of parents of girls aged 11-14 years and 63% of parents of girls aged 15-17 years.

“While parents consider a number of factors when deciding whether or not to have their adolescents immunized, vaccine safety is clearly their No. 1 concern,” Dr. Schaffer said in an interview.

Disclosures: None was reported.