This represents a
parent talking to a doctor. This is what vaccine-hesitant parents can do if
they are concerned about vaccines.
Introduction
Vaccines are one of the biggest achievements in our medical
history. Vaccines protect public health by saving countless lives and preventing
many contagious and deadly diseases. However, some parents are hesitant to
vaccinate their children due to the belief that vaccines can cause autism,
which could make their children more prone to infectious diseases such as the
flu. Even though this myth has been disproven, many parents are still hesitant about
getting their children vaccinated. The myth that vaccines cause autism is dangerous
and could lead to children getting diseases due to not being vaccinated. It is
important to influence parents to make the right decisions for their kids, such
as getting vaccinated. It is important for the audience to know what is true
and false about vaccines and for them to understand the real pros and cons of
vaccinations.
Diversity of Beliefs
When researching the belief that vaccines cause autism,
researchers wanted to create a study that analyzes how people of different
races believed what causes autism. The goal of this research was to help describe
and understand what people of different races believe causes autism. They
brought in Asian mothers, Hispanic mothers, and white mothers for this study,
and they would have the participants answer a questionnaire on what they
believe causes autism (Chaidez et al, 2018). Environmental and genetic factors
were the most common beliefs that each group had as to what causes autism.
Asian mothers were the most common group to believe that there were multiple
causes, including vaccines. This highlights that there
is a possibility that people of different races have different beliefs on
what causes autism (Chaidez., et al, 2018). There needs to be research to
confirm these findings to understand parental motivation behind their treatment
choices. It is important to understand what parents believe in and to make sure
they do not believe misinformation about vaccines, including if they believe it
is due to what is in vaccines.
Vaccine Hesitant Parents Vs. Non-Vaccine Hesitant Parents
Vaccine hesitancy has become increasingly common in parents who
have children with autism spectrum disorder. Although some stats show that
children with autism spectrum disorder are vaccinated, their vaccine reception decreased
after turning 2 years old (Goin-Kochel, 2020). Researchers had the goal to
analyze factors related to vaccine hesitancy in parents of children with autism
spectrum disorder. In this study, they brought in vaccine-hesitant and non-vaccine-hesitant
participants, and they took a “Attitudes About Childhood Vaccines questionnaire”
(Goin-Kochel, 2020). In this study, researchers wanted to see how parents who
have kids with autism spectrum disorder and are vaccine hesitant believe about
what caused autism spectrum disorder, compared to how parents who have kids
with autism spectrum disorder who are not vaccine hesitant believe. It was revealed
that 64 percent of vaccine-hesitant parents believed that autism spectrum
disorder was caused by vaccines and concern for possible toxins that might be
in them; meanwhile, only 3 percent of parents who were not vaccine-hesitant
believed that it was caused due to vaccines (Goin-Kochel, 2020). Although 74
percent of vaccine-hesitant parents also believed that genetics can be a cause,
which is correct, it is still concerning that most of them also believed that vaccines
can be a cause as well. This just emphasizes the point of how harmful the myth
that vaccines cause autism can be.
Vaccine Hesitancy Prevention
Vaccines are one of the most effective medical
accomplishments in our medical history. Vaccinations have saved millions of
lives from many deadly diseases. Sadly, vaccine hesitation has been recognized
as one of the biggest health problems that we face today. This can be dangerous
since COVID-19 can be very infectious to children, and COVID-19 can seriously
harm children (Chen et al., 2024). The goal of this research was to analyze the
effects of social support and health literacy on vaccine hesitancy in the first
and second doses of vaccines. The cross-sectional study brought in parents with
young children, and there were around thousands of children in this study, with
35 percent of parents being vaccine-hesitant (Chen et al., 2024). The survey would
collect stats such as getting information on sociodemographic attributes,
health literacy, social support, and vaccine-hesitancy in parents with the use
of questionnaires (Chen et al., 2024). Parental hesitancy rate for the first
dose of the COVID‑19 vaccine was at 69 percent and 33 percent for the second
dose. It was shown that vaccine hesitancy was linked to
parental level education, allergies, decision making, comprehension ability,
and social support (Chen et
al., 2024). These were all factors that caused vaccine hesitancy. This study
provides insight for future prevention of vaccine hesitancy and provides
information on vaccines to prevent parents from putting their children in
danger due to vaccine hesitancy.
Link Between
Vaccines and Autism?
In another study, researchers wanted to prove there was no
link between vaccines and autism. They would use a cohort study to analyze thousands of children and would analyze them over time to see whether vaccines
were causing or worsening their autism. Records were used to find a connection between
MMR vaccination, autism diagnoses, other childhood vaccines, family history of
autism, and autism risk factors in children (Hviid et al., 2019). During the
years of analyzing these children, around 6,000 of them were diagnosed with
autism spectrum disorder. They compared vaccinated children and unvaccinated
children, and they did not find a link between vaccines causing autism, nor did
not increase the risk of getting autism spectrum disorder after getting
vaccinated (Hviid et al., 2019). Overall, this study proves that vaccines such
as the MMR vaccine do not raise the possibility of autism and do not cause
autism spectrum disorder. This is helpful for parents who are concerned about getting
their kids vaccinated because, with this study, parents can now feel confident
that vaccines will not cause autism or increase the risk of getting autism.
Can Vaccines Worsen Autism?
Despite that the myth of how vaccines cause autism was
debunked, there is still a high belief in this myth that has led to the low
rate of vaccines. This is most likely due to concerns about what is in the
vaccines and not trusting medical professionals. This can be very harmful since,
without vaccines, you are more prone to diseases such as measles, mumps, and
rubella. In this study, researchers wanted to see if MMR vaccines were causing
or increasing autism, using children from the U.S with older siblings who have
or do not have autism spectrum disorder (Jain et al., 2015). They would do a
cohort study to analyze the children over time to see if the MMR vaccine was
increasing or causing them to have autism spectrum disorder. After analyzing
the children with and without autism spectrum disorder after receiving the MMR
vaccine, they found no relationship between the MMR vaccine and a cause or increased
risk of autism spectrum disorder (Jain et al., 2015). This study highlights
that parents can vaccinate their children without worrying that vaccines cause
or increase autism spectrum disorder.
Conclusion
Due to the harmful myth that vaccines cause autism, people
of different races believe in different and multiple causes of autism. Although
many vaccine-hesitant parents with children who have autism spectrum disorder
believe that genetics can be a reason, which is correct, many of them also
believe that the vaccines can cause concerning autism because this myth has
been disproven, and they are putting their children in danger of being more
prone to diseases. Vaccine hesitancy was linked to parental level education,
allergies, decision making, comprehension ability, and social support, and
there needs to be an intervention to inform parents about vaccines. After
analyzing children with and without autism spectrum, it showed proof that
vaccines do not cause or increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder. With
this blog, I hope it show parents the seriousness of vaccine hesitancy and that
it shows that vaccines do not cause autism. Vaccines are one of the greatest
medical achievements in history, and we need to use these vaccines to keep
children safe from fatal diseases.
Chaidez, V.,
Fernandez y Garcia, E., Wang, L.W., Angkustsiri, K., Krakowiak, P.,
Hertz-Picciotto, I., & Hansen, R.L. (2018). Comparison of maternal beliefs
about causes of autism spectrum disorder and association with utilization of
services and treatments. Child Care Health & Development. 44(6),
916-925.
Chen, J., Wang, Q.,
Jiang, N., Zhang, Y., Wang, T., Cao, H., Liu, Y., Yang, Y., Wang, J. (2024). The
effect of perceived social support and health literacy on parental COVID-19
vaccine hesitation in preschool children: a cross-sectional study. Scientific
Reports. 14(1), 1-10. https://research-ebsco-com.ezproxy.franu.edu/c/q57jtw/viewer/pdf/gghv53m44j
Goin-Kochel, R.,
Fombonne, E., Mire, S. S., Minard, C. G., Sahni, L. C., Cunningham, R. M.,
& Boom, J. A. (2020). Beliefs about causes of autism and vaccine hesitancy
among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. Vaccine.
38(40), 6327-6333. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2438391801?parentSessionId=ILI2BVpJmdZE4q2%2BTViUt7d%2B3KaJEddNPygaD0PlBBE%3D&accountid=33032&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals
Hviid, A., Hansen,
J.V., Frisch, M., Melbye, M. (2019). Measles, mumps, rubella vaccination and
autism: A nationwide cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine. 170(80).
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M18-2101
Jain A, Marshall J,
Buikema A, Bancroft T, Kelly J.P, Newschaffer C.J. (2015). Autism occurrence by
MMR vaccine status among US children with older siblings with and without
autism. JAMA. 313(15), 1534–1540. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2275444
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