Copeland V C
School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
Health Soc Work. 1996 May;21(2):105-14. doi: 10.1093/hsw/21.2.105.
Although childhood immunizations have proved to be one of the most effective means of preventing and controlling the spread of infectious and communicable diseases, thousands of preschool children, particularly children from urban African American poor families, are not being immunized. This article discusses the critical problem of low rates of immunization for this population and identifies ways social workers can play an active role in ensuring that more children are immunized. Immunization of preschool children is a function of the interrelationship among health-seeking behavior of parents, financial and nonfinancial barriers to health care, and provider practices that inhibit appropriate immunization. Improving access to existing public programs, facilitating community organization efforts, assisting communities through self-help and mutual-aid initiatives, and supporting national efforts can improve immunization status among poor children.
尽管儿童免疫接种已被证明是预防和控制传染病传播的最有效手段之一，但仍有成千上万的学龄前儿童，尤其是来自城市非裔美国贫困家庭的儿童没有接种疫苗。本文讨论了这一人群免疫接种率低的关键问题，并确定了社会工作者可以发挥积极作用以确保更多儿童接种疫苗的方法。学龄前儿童的免疫接种是父母寻求医疗行为、医疗保健的财务和非财务障碍以及阻碍适当免疫接种的医疗服务提供者行为之间相互关系的一种体现。改善现有公共项目的可及性、促进社区组织的努力、通过自助和互助倡议协助社区以及支持国家层面的努力，可以提高贫困儿童的免疫接种率。
