Lack
of first-hand experience with diseases such as polio, measles and
rubella may be softening support for vaccination among doctors, a study
suggests.
Researchers interviewed 551 health
providers, mostly doctors but also some nurse practitioners. They found
that significantly more of the older doctors supported vaccines than did
their younger colleagues. Overall support for vaccines remains high,
with 89.4% of the health providers considering them highly effective.
But each five-year age cohort was
slightly less enthusiastic about vaccines than the previous one. Younger
doctors, the authors explained, have grown up at a time when these
diseases are rare, making it seem less troubling for any one person to
reject vaccination.
"Are Younger Doctors More Skeptical of Vaccines?
Evaluation of a Provider Cohort Effect Regarding Immunication Beliefs,"
Michelle J. Mergler and Saad B. Omer, presented at the annual conference
of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (October)
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