Tick-borne encephalitis and its prophylaxis: parent knowledge, attitude and causes of children vaccination or anti-vaccination among Raseiniai, Kedainiai and Kaunas outpatients

Abstract

Introduction In 2017 98 % of TBE patients have not been vaccinated (1). Despite the positive attitude towards vaccines against TBE, one of the main reasons for not vaccinating children is the high cost of the vaccine, especially in urban areas (2). Furthermore, parents tend to lack knowledge about the usefulness and effectiveness of the vaccine, as the healthcare professionals fail to represent their value (2, 3). Aim To evaluate Raseiniai, Kedainiai and Kaunas outpatients’ knowledge about TBE, their attitude towards vaccines against TBE and causes of their children vaccination and anti-vaccination. Methods Prospective anonymous survey was conducted from December of 2019 to May of 2020 in PI Kedainiai Primary Care Centre, Hospital of LUHS Kaunas Clinics Family Medicine Clinic and LLC Raseiniai Family Doctors’ Centre by distributing questionnaires made by researchers. The questionnaires consisted of 22 questions with 3 domains: general information (4 questions), parents’ attitude towards the vaccine (9 questions), knowledge about the TBE (9 questions). Knowledge was evaluated using a score system: 1-2 points per question. Participants in each city were selected according to their age (≥18 years old) and whether they had ≥1 child. Data was analyzed by using MS Excel, Power BI and SPSS programmes. The comparative groups were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk criteria and compared using Pearson’s Chi-square test and Student’s t-test. The results were considered statistically significant at p<0.05. Results 352 questionnaires (148 in Kaunas, 113 in Kedainiai, 91 in Raseiniai) were filled. The average age of the participants ± SD was 36 ± 7.68. The data was not grouped according to the gender as the majority of questionnaires were filled by both of the family members. The prevalence of higher education was 57.1%. 85.8% of respondents had a positive attitude towards the vaccine against [...].