Department of Pediatrics, Akron Children's Hospital, 128 E Milltown Rd, Suite 209, Wooster, OH 44691, USA.
Pediatrics. 2011 Jul;128(1):79-85. doi: 10.1542/peds.2009-2599. Epub 2011 Jun 27.
Holmes County, Ohio, one of the largest Amish communities in the world, has persistently low immunization rates. Studies of other Amish communities have revealed that parents do not immunize their children because of lack of access to immunizations. Our study explored reasons that Amish parents in the previously uninvestigated Holmes County population exempt themselves from immunizations.
In January 2007, questionnaires for assessing attitudes regarding immunizations were mailed to a random sampling of 1000 Amish parents in Holmes County.
Thirty-seven percent of the parents responded. Among the 359 respondents, 68% stated that all of their children had received at least 1 immunization, and 17% reported that some of their children had received at least 1 immunization. Only 14% of the parents reported that none of their children had received immunizations. Eighty-six percent of the parents who completely exempted their children from vaccines stated that the main reason they do not vaccinate their children is concern over adverse effects. Many parents indicated that they allow their children to receive only some vaccines because of concern about the way certain vaccines are produced.
The reasons that Amish parents resist immunizations mirror reasons that non-Amish parents resist immunizations. Even in America's closed religious communities, the major barrier to vaccination is concern over adverse effects of vaccinations. If 85% of Amish parents surveyed accept some immunizations, they are a dynamic group that may be influenced to accept preventative care. Underimmunization in the Amish population must be approached with emphasis on changing parental perceptions of vaccines in addition to ensuring access to vaccines.
俄亥俄州的 Holmes 县是世界上最大的 Amish 社区之一，其免疫接种率一直很低。对其他 Amish 社区的研究表明，父母不免疫他们的孩子是因为无法获得免疫接种。我们的研究探讨了 Holmes 县以前未被调查的 Amish 人群中，父母选择不免疫接种的原因。
2007 年 1 月，我们向 Holmes 县的 1000 名随机抽样的 Amish 父母邮寄了评估他们对免疫接种态度的问卷。
37%的父母做出了回应。在 359 名应答者中，68%表示他们所有的孩子都至少接受了 1 次免疫接种，17%报告说他们的一些孩子至少接受了 1 次免疫接种。只有 14%的父母报告说他们的孩子没有接受过免疫接种。完全豁免孩子接种疫苗的父母中，86%表示他们不接种孩子的主要原因是担心疫苗的副作用。许多父母表示，他们只允许孩子接种部分疫苗，因为担心某些疫苗的生产方式。
Amish 父母拒绝接种疫苗的原因与非 Amish 父母拒绝接种疫苗的原因相似。即使在美国的封闭宗教社区中，疫苗接种的主要障碍也是对疫苗副作用的担忧。如果接受调查的 85%的 Amish 父母接受了一些免疫接种，那么他们是一个具有活力的群体，可能会受到影响而接受预防保健。在 Amish 人群中，必须强调改变父母对疫苗的看法，除了确保获得疫苗外，还要解决免疫不足的问题。
