Delays in the vaccination of infants between 2 and 18 months of age: associated factors in Chile

Abstract

Introduction: Infant vaccination has significantly reduced the morbidity and mortality of transmittable diseases worldwide. Its coverage is high (85%); however, partial or suboptimal vaccination has been an important public health problem. This study aimed (1) to design and explore the psychometric features of a questionnaire to determine the reasons for this partial or suboptimal vaccination; and 2) to determine the factors associated with delaying Diphtheria, Tetanus, Poliomyelitis (DTaP) vaccination.

Material and methods: This study contained two parts. In Part One, a questionnaire was created by the research team and then validated by a committee of experts in the field and a group of parents. It included the following contents: sociodemographic variables, features of the vaccination services, history of vaccination, and attitudes and perceptions about vaccination. Part Two was a cross-sectional study, recruiting private and public healthcare centers to explore the psychometrics features of the instrument, performing exploratory factor analysis, and determining the associated factors with DTaP vaccination delay throughout multivariable regression models.

Results: Initially, six experts validated the questionnaire. For instance, on a scale of 1 to 5, the general evaluation of the questionnaire was ≥ 4 for all the experts. Additionally, five experts considered that most of the questions were easy to understand, and all thought the questionnaire had a clear and logical organization. The resulting questionnaire included the "Trust and positive attitude towards vaccination" scale, which had a good structure of items and internal consistency (α = 0.7918). Six healthcare centers were recruited in the second part of the study, and 715 people answered the questionnaire. Not being the mother who brings the child to the health center, having more than one child, and having a history of previous vaccination delays increased the risk of delaying vaccination. Attending the healthcare center for a reason other than only vaccination, obtaining information about vaccines from the Internet, and having higher trust and positive attitudes to vaccination reduced the risk of delay.

Conclusions: First study during the pandemic to explore the role of different factors on the risk of DTaP vaccination delay in Latin America. The findings highlighted the importance of trust in the vaccination system. The instrument presented in this article may help the scientific community evaluate future interventions to increase trust and positive attitudes toward the vaccination process.

Keywords: DTaP; Delays; Hesitancy; Questionnaire; Trust and positive attitudes; Vaccination.