Abstract:

Objective: It was aimed to determine the vaccine rejection rates and affecting factors in the Training Family Health Centers (TFHC) affiliated with a department of family medicine. Method: This study was designed as a mixed research and conducted in two TFHC of Department of Family Medicine of Ataturk University. In 2018, parents who did not receive at least one of the vaccines required under the Ministry of Health's Extended Immunity Program were included. Semi-structured interview technique was used on the telephone as the data collection method. Content analysis was applied statistically. It was observed that in 9 children at least one vaccine was missing. An in-depth interview was done with 6 volunteering parents. Results: The mean age was 30±1.2 years for both parents. All parents (n=6) who refused vaccination were university graduates. 66.7% of the parents (n=4) had high monthly income. Missing vaccinations were observed in 3 (3.3%) out of 89 children aged 0-2 years registered to the TFHC-1 (3 units), and 4 (1.32%) of 301 children between the ages of 0-2 registered to the second TFHC-2 (2 units). Four children were not vaccinated due to distrust to the vaccine. Three of the parents refused vaccination due to complications developed after previous vaccinations. One parent rejected the immunization due to the different schedules between countries and changes in the schedules. One parent thought that the vaccine was not so important because it was not obligatory. One child was not vaccinated because he was afraid of vaccination. Conclusion: Vaccine rejection rates were found low in our TFHCs and socioeconomic levels of those who rejected the vaccine were high. The most important factors affecting vaccine rejection were the lack of confidence in the vaccine content and insufficient information about vaccines.

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