(22) Improving the vaccine experience for patients and parents

Background: Vaccine non-compliance is a common problem in the clinical setting. One factor is the unwillingness to induce pain and distress in the child. Evidence-based pain-reducing interventions can be utilized in the clinical setting with minimal cost and little extra time.

Objectives: To determine if age-based interventions decrease parent perception of their child’s pain during routine childhood vaccinations as a first step to improve vaccine compliance in the clinical setting.

Design/Methods: Children aged 0-2 years who are due to receive routine childhood vaccinations were eligible for enrollment. Children were assigned to either the control or intervention group. Age-based interventions included physical, pharmacological, and distraction tools. Participating parents completed a pre-survey regarding perception of pain during vaccinations and previous experiences, then a post-survey regarding pain perception and overall experience.

Results: Approximately 42% of data needed to form a statistically significant analysis has been collected. Preliminary results show that from the intervention group, 19 of 23 parents (83%) believe the interventions improved the overall vaccine experience even when only 5 of 23 parents (22%) perceived their child had less pain with the interventions. From the control group, 14 of 18 parents (78%) desired their child to receive interventions during vaccinations.

Conclusion: Preliminary results indicate that providing age-based physical, pharmacological, and distraction interventions to children ages 0-2 years during vaccinations improved parents’ perceptions of the overall vaccine experience, even when the majority of parents do not believe their child had reduced pain. This provides evidence in favor of offering these interventions to ease vaccine hesitancy related to emotional discomfort during vaccinations.