Vaccine Hesitancy in Central Switzerland: Identifying and Characterizing Undervaccinated Children in a Pediatric Emergency Department

Author:

Ménétrey Anika12ORCID,Landolt Markus A.345ORCID,Buettcher Michael67ORCID,Neuhaus Thomas J.1,Simma Leopold58ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Lucerne, Spitalstrasse, 6000 Lucerne, Switzerland

2. Department of Neurology, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland

3. Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland

4. Division of Child and Adolescent Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland

5. Children’s Research Center, University Children’s Hospital of Zurich, University of Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland

6. Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, Children’s Hospital Lucerne, Cantonal Hospital Lucerne, 6000 Lucerne, Switzerland

7. Department of Pediatric Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics, University Children’s Hospital Basel, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland

8. Emergency Department, University Children’s Hospital Zurich, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract

Vaccinations play an important role in the prevention of potentially fatal diseases. Vaccine hesitancy has become an important problem both in the public discourse and for public health. We aimed to identify and characterize this potentially unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated group of children presenting to the pediatric emergency department (PED) of the tertiary children’s hospital in central Switzerland, a region that has anecdotally been claimed as a hotspot for vaccine hesitancy. All patients presenting to the PED (N = 20,247) between September 2018 and September 2019 were screened for their vaccination status and categorized as incomplete, unvaccinated, or fully vaccinated in a retrospective cohort study. Some 2.6% (n = 526) visits to the PED were not or incompletely vaccinated according to age, or their vaccination status was unknown. Most of the children in the cohort were not critically ill, and the minority had to be hospitalized. Undervaccinated patients were overrepresented in rural areas. Of all cohort visits, 18 (3.4%) patients received opportunistic vaccination in the PED. No cases of vaccine-preventable diseases were observed. In summary, incompletely vaccinated and unvaccinated status was less frequent than initially expected. The PED may play a role in increasing vaccination coverage by providing opportunistic vaccinations.

Funder

Children’s Research Center, University Children’s Hospital of Zurich

Anna Mueller Grocholski Foundation, Zurich

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

Pediatrics

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