Background
The use of vaccines is among the most cost-effective tools for preventing infectious diseases and their complications. However, poor uptake and increasing exemption to routine childhood vaccination have been linked with outbreaks of infectious diseases such as measles, pertussis, and more recently poliomyelitis in the US. The objective of the study is to determine the prevalence, pattern, and predisposing factors of vaccine exemptions to childhood immunization amongst parents of children in the Northeast Region from 2017 to 2021.
Methods
The routine immunization data of children between 1-24 months in the Northeast region, Tennessee from 2017- 2021 was extracted. Based on the population of children within the birth cohort, a random sample of children was selected from birth certificates of children born in the first three months of 2 years prior in Tennessee’s eight counties in the Northeast region. Descriptive statistics with trends, Chi-square, and logistic regression were conducted to delineate factors associated with vaccine exemption in the region.
Result
The prevalence of vaccine exemption was 2% on average, but the vaccine exemption rate increased significantly from 1.5% in 2019 (pre-COVID pandemic) to 2.5% in 2020 (peri-COVID period). However, the mother’s level of education (aOR=2.37; CI=0.55-10.17), mother’s age (aOR=0.59; CI=0.14-2.51), TennCare attendance (aOR=0.57; CI=0.15-2.21) do not show statistically significant association with exemption to childhood vaccination in Northeast region in Tennessee.
Conclusion
There appears to be an increasing trend in the vaccine exemption to routine childhood immunizations in the Northeast region of Tennessee over the years. However, the impact of other factors associated with exemptions to childhood vaccinations needs further research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-2168 |
| Date | 25 April 2023 |
| Creators | Olomofe, Charles, Boop, Sarah, Brooks, Billy, Kirschke, David, Olomofe, Oluwafunmike Ruth |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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