Parental attitudes towards routine vaccines in the national childhood immunization program and the relationship of vaccine literacy with sociodemographic characteristics

This thesis aims to evaluate the relationship between parents' sociodemographic characteristics, their attitudes towards vaccination, and the subdimensions of vaccine literacy. Additionally, the study seeks to clarify the potential impacts of the diversity in parental vaccine attitudes and their vaccine literacy levels on the functional, communicative, and critical dimensions. A total of 400 parents who visited the pediatric outpatient clinics of Ankara Bilkent City Hospital's Children's Tower between June 1, 2024, and June 15, 2024, participated in the study. Data were collected through face-to-face surveys, and the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 software package was used for data analysis. The analyses revealed statistically significant differences between parents' sociodemographic characteristics, vaccine-related attitudes, and vaccine literacy. Furthermore, it was found that parents' vaccine attitude scores were at a moderate level. A negative statistically significant relationship was identified between the functional health literacy subdimension scores and the scale and subdimension scores for vaccine attitudes. Conversely, a positive statistically significant relationship was found between the communicative health literacy subdimension scores and the scale and subdimension scores for vaccine attitudes (p<0.05). In conclusion, it was observed that younger parents had higher vaccine literacy levels and that education level, income, and child's age had a limited impact on attitude-related behaviors. Healthcare professionals and policymakers can contribute to herd immunity and the prevention of outbreaks by raising parents' awareness.