Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Professor Mitch Blair

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Emeritus Professor
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 8869 3881m.blair Website

 
 
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Location

 

River Island Academic Centre for Paediatrics and Child HealthNorthwick ParkNorthwick Park and St Marks Site

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Plumptre:2020:10.1016/j.puhe.2020.01.006,
author = {Plumptre, I and Tolppa, T and Blair, M},
doi = {10.1016/j.puhe.2020.01.006},
journal = {Public Health},
pages = {39--44},
title = {Parent and staff attitudes towards in-hospital opportunistic vaccination},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.01.006},
volume = {182},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - ObjectivesRecent trends of ‘vaccine hesitancy’ have resulted in calls for public health campaigns to improve immunisation uptake to World Health Organisation (WHO) targets. One potential strategy to improve uptake is to offer opportunistic vaccination to those hospital in-patients who have missed them. We aimed to evaluate parental and staff attitudes about introducing such a service for hospitalised children.Study designCross sectional questionnaire-based design.MethodsWe developed and distributed a questionnaire for parents/guardians of paediatric inpatients aged 5 years and under, and a questionnaire for frontline paediatric staff (including medical, nursing and allied health professionals). Vaccination rates were assessed through discussion with parents and by reviewing the personal child health record.ResultsOne-hundred families and 100 paediatric staff participated. Local vaccination rates were significantly below the WHO target (P < 0.001), particularly for the Bacille Calmette-Guerine (BCG) vaccination (P = 0.001). Both parents (89/100, 89%) and staff (87/100, 87%) regarded inpatient opportunistic vaccination acceptable. Parents of children with chronic disease reported a potentially higher rate of missed vaccinations, stating reasons of frequent illness and inpatient stays. The majority of staff (81/95, 85.3%) would be willing to support inpatient vaccination if appropriately trained. A significant minority had reservations.ConclusionsOpportunistic vaccination is a strategy deemed acceptable by the majority of parents and staff. Children with chronic disease would especially benefit from opportunistic inpatient immunisation. In order to facilitate this, improved digital access to primary care vaccination records and investment in staff training, education and support would be required.
AU  - Plumptre,I
AU  - Tolppa,T
AU  - Blair,M
DO  - 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.01.006
EP  - 44
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 0033-3506
SP  - 39
TI  - Parent and staff attitudes towards in-hospital opportunistic vaccination
T2  - Public Health
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.01.006
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033350620300160?via%3Dihub
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/77818
VL  - 182
ER  -
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