Parents' attitudes and behaviours towards recommended vaccinations in Sicily, Italy

Background: Since a long time, Italy has maintained a dual system to administer childhood immunisations, that isa certain number of mandatory vaccinations and a number of recommended vaccinations. The study aimed toexplore the issues surrounding parental acceptance or non-acceptance of the recommended vaccinations forchildren.Methods: Parents of children aged 3-5 years of day-care centres in Sicily were asked to fill out an anonymousquestionnaire. Determinants of the attitude towards recommended vaccinations and social influence on thedecision-making process were assessed using logistic regression analysis.Results: Of the 1,500 selected parents, 81.0% participated in the study. Prior to the survey, the majority of children(97.6%) received recommended vaccines. Most parents (74.4%) received information about vaccinations fromFamily Paediatricians, showed a good knowledge about the side effects of the vaccines (73.1%), did not worryabout their potential dangerousness (53.0%) and would have accepted their children to be vaccinated even if itwas not required for day care (84.1%). The majority (79.9%) were not disposed to follow the advises of the antivaccinationmovements. Parents’ background characteristics, sources of information and social influence were notsignificantly associated with parental acceptance of recommended vaccines for childhood.Conclusions: This study suggests that health information by Family Paediatricians is significantly associated withparental acceptance of recommended vaccinations.