Parents of children were invited to complete a questionnaire in a tertiary referral medical center in Kaoshiung, southern Taiwan from 2006 to 2008. A total of 535 questionnaires were completed. We used descriptive data for the analysis of parentsx2019; views and attitudes toward the current vaccination program in Taiwan.
Of the 535 respondents, most parents (93 % ) did not think the current vaccination program was satisfactory. Few (approximately 8 % ) preferred self-paid vaccines. About 63 % of parents believed that the new (self-paid) vaccines provided more protection, whereas 48 % deemed them too expensive. The most popular reason for preferring the new vaccines was greater protection (73 % ). One-half of parents considered the new vaccines to be expensive. Regarding parental awareness of side effect of vaccination, fever was the most well known and of greatest concern (91 % ). Most parents (68 % ) had good awareness of conjugated pneumococcal vaccines, and only few (13 % ) had heard of the human papilloma virus vaccine. Most parental information of vaccines came from pamphlets at the hospital (56 % ).
We found the awareness of parents about new vaccines to be insufficient. They also considered the new vaccines to be expensive.