Lind Candace, Russell Margaret L, MacDonald Judy, Collins Ramona, Frank Christine J, Davis Amy E
Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
PLoS One. 2014 Mar 31;9(3):e93490. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093490. eCollection 2014.
School-age children are important drivers of annual influenza epidemics yet influenza vaccination coverage of this population is low despite universal publicly funded influenza vaccination in Alberta, Canada. Immunizing children at school may potentially increase vaccine uptake. As parents are a key stakeholder group for such a program, it is important to consider their concerns.
We explored parents' perspectives on the acceptability of adding an annual influenza immunization to the immunization program that is currently delivered in Alberta schools, and obtained suggestions for structuring such a program.
Forty-eight parents of children aged 5-18 years participated in 9 focus groups. Participants lived in urban areas of the Alberta Health Services Calgary Zone.
Three major themes emerged: Advantages of school-based influenza vaccination (SBIV), Disadvantages of SBIV, and Implications for program design & delivery. Advantages were perceived to occur for different populations: children (e.g. emotional support), families (e.g. convenience), the community (e.g. benefits for school and multicultural communities), the health sector (e.g. reductions in costs due to burden of illness) and to society at large (e.g. indirect conduit of information about health services, building structure for pandemic preparedness, building healthy lifestyles). Disadvantages, however, might also occur for children (e.g. older children less likely to be immunized), families (e.g. communication challenges, perceived loss of parental control over information, choices and decisions) and the education sector (loss of instructional time). Nine second-level themes emerged within the major theme of Implications for program design & delivery: program goals/objectives, consent process, stakeholder consultation, age-appropriate program, education, communication, logistics, immunizing agent, and clinic process.
Parents perceived advantages and disadvantages to delivering annual seasonal influenza immunizations to children at school. Their input gives a framework of issues to address in order to construct robust, acceptable programs for delivering influenza or other vaccines in schools.
学龄儿童是每年流感流行的重要驱动因素，然而在加拿大艾伯塔省，尽管流感疫苗接种由公共资金普遍资助，但该人群的流感疫苗接种率仍然很低。在学校为儿童接种疫苗可能会提高疫苗接种率。由于父母是此类计划的关键利益相关者群体，因此考虑他们的担忧很重要。
我们探讨了父母对于在艾伯塔省学校目前实施的免疫计划中增加年度流感免疫的可接受性的看法，并获得了构建此类计划的建议。
48名5至18岁儿童的父母参加了9个焦点小组。参与者居住在艾伯塔省卫生服务卡尔加里地区的城市地区。
出现了三个主要主题：基于学校的流感疫苗接种（SBIV）的优点、SBIV的缺点以及对计划设计与实施的影响。不同人群认为存在优点：儿童（例如情感支持）、家庭（例如便利）、社区（例如对学校和多元文化社区的益处）、卫生部门（例如因疾病负担减轻成本）以及整个社会（例如关于卫生服务信息的间接传播渠道、大流行防范的架构、建立健康的生活方式）。然而，儿童（例如年龄较大的儿童接种疫苗的可能性较小）、家庭（例如沟通挑战、感觉失去父母对信息、选择和决策的控制权）以及教育部门（教学时间损失）也可能存在缺点。在对计划设计与实施的影响这一主要主题中出现了九个二级主题：计划目标、同意程序、利益相关者协商、适合年龄的计划、教育、沟通、后勤、免疫制剂以及诊所流程。
父母认为在学校为儿童提供年度季节性流感免疫既有优点也有缺点。他们的意见提供了一个需要解决的问题框架，以便构建强大且可接受的计划，在学校提供流感或其他疫苗。
