Why do parents decide against immunization? The effect of health beliefs and health professionals.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the knowledge, attitudes and concerns with respect to immunization and vaccine-preventable infections in parents whose children have not completed the recommended course of immunization. SETTING: Parents of children resident in the London Borough of Hackney. METHODS: Children born between 1 January 1999 and 15 February 1999 were identified from the child health database, and cases were defined as those who had defaulted for one or more primary immunization by 18 months of age. After validation of immunization status from health records, questionnaires were sent to parents. Ten respondents from this sample were interviewed. RESULTS: Questionnaires were sent to 129 parents of children identified as not completing the recommended immunization course. Nine questionnaires were returned 'address unknown', and 76 parents returned the completed questionnaire. The response rate from known residents was 76/110 (69%). Eight parents stated that their child had been immunized, leaving 68 questionnaires available for further analysis. Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and meningococcal C were most frequently omitted, usually because of concerns about vaccine safety. Twenty-three out of 68 respondents perceived that having their child immunized with a particular vaccine was more risky than non-immunization, particularly for MMR and meningococcal C vaccines. Those who agreed to be interviewed were notably concerned about the MMR vaccine, but not immunization in general. They perceived the information provided by health professionals to be poor. CONCLUSIONS: The decision-making process around childhood immunization is complex. Parents require information that is up to date, tailored to their individual needs and provided by health professionals who are well informed.

[Y2K in medical practice]. / Y2K u medicinskoj praksi.

The data in computing programs could make two types of problems, functioning of medical equipment and analyses of medical datas. The first one is not use limiting problem. The troubles could be performed in calculation of pregnancy dates but the final calculation in up to medical practitioners. The former situation, analyses of medical datas, could be limited without complete and correct datas, mainly in analyses of life expectancy tables, and related fields.

[Use of actual medical information in daily practice]. / Upotreba aktuelnih medicinskih informacija u svakodnevnoj praksi.

Use of medical information in everyday practice has been described in this paper. Importance of systematic collection, analysis and use, including correct "data management" is noticed. Information system is formed of every noted information, not only in computing form. Use of databases allows us connection to many information, but rational use should allow us to select only these in number an quality which are necessary for decision making.