Major Article
Vaccination for child clients and employees in St Louis childcare agencies: Vaccine uptake and policies versus parents' perceptions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2016.03.047Get rights and content

Background

Little is known about childcare agency staff vaccination requirements, parents' perceptions of these requirements, or vaccine uptake in these populations.

Methods

A questionnaire was administered to St Louis parents and childcare agency staff in fall of 2014. The χ2 tests compared staff's versus parents' uptake of hepatitis A, pertussis, and seasonal influenza vaccines. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine individuals being fully immunized (ie, having received influenza, hepatitis A, and pertussis vaccines).

Results

Overall, 351 parents and staff from 23 agencies participated (response rate, 32%). One-third of staff (34.4%, n = 33) and parents (37.6%, n = 96) were fully immunized. Parents and staff were equally likely to have received the influenza vaccine (48.8% and 47.3%, respectively), but more staff received the hepatitis A vaccine (85.3% vs 67.5%, χ2=11.0, P < .001), and more parents received the pertussis vaccine (66.5% vs 45.8%, χ2=12.5, P < .001). Determinants of being fully immunized included having previously received the influenza vaccine, being offered the vaccines, belief that vaccination is important, having immunization recommendation awareness, and not having vaccine misperceptions.

Conclusions

Childcare agency staff vaccination can protect employees and children from disease, but their uptake of vaccines needs improvement. Future interventions should be aimed at increasing uptake to lower disease transmission in childcare settings.

Section snippets

Methods

All parents and staff at 23 St Louis City and County childcare agencies were invited to participate in a survey between September-December 2014. A recruitment e-mail was sent that included a link to an electronic survey created through Qualtrics, an online survey software program. Paper questionnaires were also available at participating childcare agencies. The Saint Louis University Institutional Review Board approved this study.

Results

Twenty-three agencies agreed to participate, from which 351 parents, staff, and administrators were recruited and completed a survey (response rate, 32%). Demographics of the participants are outlined in Table 1. Most participants were parents or guardians (72.6%, n = 255), and the response rate was approximately the same among parents and staff (33.4% vs 30.4%, respectively). Most respondents were white (69.8%, n = 245), women (86.6%, n = 304), and worked full-time (73.2%, n = 257). Most

Discussion

This study found that there is strong parental and staff interest in and perceived importance for childcare staff vaccination. Despite this, there are little data being collected by agencies on staff vaccination status. A fair number of agencies never collect staff immunization data, and even among those that do, three-quarters only assess it on hire. Few parents in this study knew whether their agency staff were vaccinated. Only 14% indicated that they had ever asked about staff vaccination;

Conclusions

Vaccine-preventable diseases remain a threat to staff and children in childcare settings. Childcare agency staff vaccination can protect employees and child attendees from disease, but their uptake of influenza and pertussis vaccines needs improvement. Parents and staff support childcare agency employee vaccination and believe it is important. Future interventions should be aimed at increasing vaccine uptake, which would lower the risk of disease transmission in childcare settings and could

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  • Funding/Support: This study was funded by a grant from the Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice's Research Office.

    Conflicts of Interest: None to report.

    Disclaimer: The funding agency had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, writing of the report, or decision to publish findings.

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