The Awareness of children vaccination of Lithuanians living in Lithuania and foreign countries

Abstract

Introduction. In the last century, vaccination became one of the most effective intervention in our society. Vaccination eliminated deadly diseases like smallpox, poliomyelitis and measles. Morbidity of diphteria, tetanus, pertussis, rubella were significantly reduced. Great victories were achieved with vaccines for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, chickenpox and pneumococcal as well. However, in the meantime Lithuania has concerns about the safety of vaccination damage that the shot might cause to children. This wide concern was the main lead to this study where we wanted to evaluate the view of parents to their children vaccination. Aim. The aim is to evaluate the awareness of children vaccination of Lithuanians living in Lithuania and foreign countries.Methods. To reach out goals we used anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 3 types of questions (twofold (yes/no); open questions; scaling (from totally disagree to totally agree). Respondents were given 12 questions about the safety of vaccination, its` necessity, benefits and damage, also awareness and sources of information (what sources do you get the information about vaccination from; does your primary care physician provide you with enough information on children vaccination). Questionnaires were shared online in lithuanian forums and also in foreign Lithuanians internet communities via social networks. 716 respondents answered to the questions. Reference group was composed of 337 lithuanians who live in foreign countries and 379 lithuanians living in Lithuania. All statistical data were processed using MS „Excel for Windows 2013“ and IBM SPSS 23.0 software. [...].