Master of Public Health (MPH)
Environmental and Occupational Health
First Committee Member
Second Committee Member
Third Committee Member
Fourth Committee Member
Number of Pages
Vaccination is considered one of the most successful public health achievements of the 20th century. However, with increasing vaccine skepticism emerging over the past decades, there is a threat to the ongoing sustainment of vaccine coverage within all US communities. This study evaluated and compared parents’ sociodemographic factors associated with childhood vaccine decisions. This study is a secondary analysis of 893 parents/guardians, age 18-55 years with child(ren) < 7 years living in the U.S.
Predictive analysis was conducted using multinomial logistic regression modeling was used to examine vaccine decisions (accept, hesitant, and refuse) in relation to parents’ sociodemographic factors. Overall, (66.6%) of parents accepted recommended vaccines, while (23.6%) hesitated, and (9.7%) refused the recommended childhood vaccines. Males were more likely than females to refuse rather than accept vaccines (OR= 1.88, 95% CI 1.03-3.43). Parents with low income were more likely to refuse compared to middle-income parents (OR= 2.40, 95% CI 1.32-4.37). However, parents with high income were less likely to refuse vaccine when compared to parents with middle income (OR= 0.59, 95% CI 0.28-1.24).
To reduce the proportion of vaccine-hesitant parents and improve coverage, interventions should be tailored to specific groups of parents to identify potential barriers, address those barriers by implementing target specific interventions and programs, and monitor them to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs.
Childhood Vaccines; Parental sociodemographics; Vaccine Decisions
Biostatistics | Epidemiology | Public Health
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Girmay, Mehret, "Evaluating Parents Sociodemographic Factors and Childhood Vaccine Decisions" (2019). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 3806.
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