Vaccine Hesitation in Parents of Children with Food Allergy

Abstract

Objective: The term vaccine hesitation means “rejection or delay of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services”. Parents may delay the vaccination of their children when their children have a history of food allergies. The present study aims to evaluate the factors about vaccine hesitancy of parents with food allergic children.
 Methods: A cross-sectional survey research, created by the researchers, was conducted to the parents of children who were already followed up with food allergy by the pediatric allergy department.
 Results: The parents of 190 children with a median age of 24 (2-60) months who were followed up for food allergy were included in the study. The median follow-up period of the patients was 15.5 (4–160). Forty-four (23.1%) participants had delayed at least one vaccination of their children due to food allergy in the past. The most common vaccine hesitancy was toward the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. The study also found that there were more delays in vaccination in children with egg allergy (100%) than in those without egg allergy (75.3%) (p = 0.01). As a result of our study, it was determined that the most frequent information about vaccination was obtained from doctors (89.5%)
 Conclusions: It was understood that a substantial proportion of parents with food allergic children had vaccine hesitancy in the past. Families obtaining complete and accurate information about food allergy and vaccine interactions, especially from the health system, will prevent unnecessary delay due to vaccine hesitations.