A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
SECTION THREE
CHILDREN NOT IMMUNISED
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The following is a summary of the information obtained from the 720 parents interviewed who had none of their children immunised, and the 355 parents who had some but not all of their children immunised. The distinction had to be made between parents with none and those with some of their children immunised,. for the immunisation of one child in a family may have had an effect on whether other children in the same family were immunised.
In view of the Ministry of Health's recommendation that the best time for immunisation is as soon as possible after the first birthday, families or given separately.
X. Proportion of parents who have tried to get their children to an immunisation scheme and what decided them. Why immunisation was not carried out.
Table 13
It is shown that of the parents with no children immunised, some 10% in England and Wales, and the same percentage in Scotland, said they had tried to get their children immunised. The proportion is higher with those parents who already have some of their children immunised, particularly in Scotland, although the number on which the percentages are based is too small for adequate sampling. There is no significant difference shown between the good and bad districts in the proportion of parents who had tried to get their children immunised.
Tables 14 & 15
Parents who have tried to get their children immunised learned of the immunisation scheme mainly from the school attended by their children, their Welfare Centre, and to a less extent from the radio, press, or from neighbours, friends and relatives, etc. These agencies are the same and in about the same proportions as those of Table 9,(the results for parents who have all their children immunised).
The factors which decided these parents to try to have their children immunised are also those mentioned previously, (Table 10)
Table 16
The main difference between the good and bad areas for Diphtheria immunisation appears from this enquiry to be due to the difference in available immunisation facilities. It has been shown (Table 2) that knowledge of Diphtheria immunisation as the method for preventing the disease, and knowledge of the arrangements for free immunisation (Table 18) are as evident in the bad as in the good districts. Table 13, when analysed for good and bad districts, shows that as many parents in the bad as in the good districts had tried to get their children immunised. There is no significant difference between the good and bad districts in the proportion of parents having definite objections to immunisation. The reason given by parents as to why immunisation was not carried out was, apart from that of illness of children at the time arrangements were made, that a form of consent was completed and nothing has been heard since, or that facilities were not available. 45, or 38%, of the 119 parents who had tried unsuccessfully to have their children immunised said this, and 34, or 29% were in the bad districts. It can be concluded from this that facilities need improvement in the bad districts.
xi. Knowledge of arrangements of free immunisation.
xii. Reasons given for not having children immunised.
xiii. Proportion of parents who say they will arrange for their children to be immunised, and reasons given for difficulty in taking children to be treated.
xi. Knowledge of arrangements of free immunisation.
Table 17
Parents who have made no effort to have their children immunised were asked if they knew about the arrangements for free immunisation. Of parents with no children immunised 26% in England and Wales, and the same percentage in Scotland, said they did not know of the arrangements.
Even among parents with some children immunised 9% in England and Wales said they did not know of the arrangements made for free immunisation. These are probably families in which those children who were immunised were over 5 years of age and had been treated at school, and in which the parents do not know of the immunisation scheme for their children of pre-school age.
Table 17a
Of parents with children under 1 year old only, 61% knew of free immunisation.
Table 18 & 18a
The analysis for the “good” and “bad” districts covered by the enquiry suggests that a uniform proportion of parents in both kinds of districts knew of the arrangements for free immunisation.
In question 20 parents who had not tried to get their children immunised were asked if they had ever thought of the possibility of their children having Diphtheria. The replies were:
These proportions appear to be the same for both the “good” and “bad” areas.
xii. Reasons given by parents of unimmunised children for not having their children immunised.
Table 19
Parents who had made no effort to have their children immunised were asked why they did not. The following is a summary of the reasons given. It excludes cases of children too young for immunisation. The table gives the information separately for parents who have none of their children immunised and for parents who have some of their children immunised, and the total of these two groups.
Many parents gave more than one reason for not having had children immunised, and the percentage given is the number of reasons based on the number of parents.
57% of parents realised the benefit of immunisation to a greater or lesser extent, but had held it in abeyance.
The 12% giving the reason that the child is not old enough for immunisation or that they are waiting until the child goes to school all refer to children who are over one year old. These parents either have the erroneous idea that a child 5 years of age is too young for immunisation, or know that the child is not too young and are waiting for it to go to school because of the convenience to them of school treatment. This is particularly so with parents who already have some children immunised, 31% in this category giving this reason.
38% of parents hold that immunisation is not effective, or would submit to their children having Diphtheria as inevitable, or think it is unnecessary if a child is strong and healthy:
| It does not prevent Diphtheria, I do not believe in it, I am not sure it’s worth while: | 21% |
| Unnecessary if child is strong and healthy: | 10% |
| If a child is going to have it, it will: | 7% |
27% of parents have a more definite objection:
| My husband objects: * | 15% |
| Immunisation is injurious to child’s health: it frightens children: | 12% |
* An analysis was made to find out whether the husbands of those who gave this answer were in H. M. Forces or not, as husbands in the Forces might have had many painful injections themselves, and, projecting their experience on to Diphtheria immunisation object to their children having to suffer in the same way. It was found that 22 (or 20%) of the 108 husbands concerned were in the Forces. 506 (25%) of the total sample of 2,026 husbands were in the Forces. If only 22 of 500 husbands serving in the Forces have objected it would appear that it is not only because of Service experience that husbands object to immunisation for their children. This is not conclusive, however, as it is not known whether the remaining 80% of husbands who objected have been in the Forces prior to the present war.
4% of parents whose children have had and recovered from Diphtheria think that the disease confers immunity, and for that reason have not had their children immunised.
6% of parent's said they have never heard of Diphtheria immunisation, or said that they did not know where to have it done.
8% of parents could give no reason for not having had their children immunised.
It will be seen from this that the greater proportion of parents had no definite objections to having their children immunised, but had not had them treated for a variety of reasons, many of which were merely cloaks for apathy.
There do not appear to be any significant differences between the “good” and “bad” areas in the reasons given by parents for not having had children immunised, except in the group of parents who realise the benefits of immunisation, but for some reason have not had it carried out. The analysis for “good” and “bad” areas,. for families in which no children are immunised, is:
xiii. Proportion of parents who will arrange for their children to be immunised, and reasons for difficulties in taking children to be immunised.
Table 20
Parents who had not tried to get their children immunised were asked if they would be arranging for immunisation. Of the group with no children immunised, 41% said they would be arranging, 28% said they would not, and 30% did not know. Of the group who have some of their children already immunised,76% said they would be arranging for immunisation, 5% said they would not, and 11% said that they did not know.
Table 21
Parents who replied that they would be arranging for immunisation were asked what arrangements they would make. The analysis of answers shows that in the urban areas 9% would have it done through their own doctor, and 71% through their Welfare Centre, hospital or school.19% did not answer the question. In rural areas 30% of parents said they would arrange immunisation through their own doctor and 41% through their Welfare Centre, hospital or school. 27% did not answer the question.
Tables 22 & 23
All parents with unimmunised children were asked if they found it difficult to take their children to be immunised. The replies are given by English, Welsh and Scottish “good” and “bad areas. In Scotland no parent stated difficulty in taking children, but in England and Wales 15% - 17% said they had difficulty. The difference between the “good” and “bad” and urban and rural areas is not statistically significant.
Table 24
The main difficulty of parents in England and Wales in taking their children to be immunised is that of being too busy at home or at work, or in the case of large families of young children, that there is no one to mind the other children while the mother takes the child to be immunised. Another outstanding difficulty is that the distance to the Welfare Centre is too great.8% of those expressing difficulty, it is to be noted, do so because they do not know of the whereabouts of a Welfare, Centre.