Nonmedical vaccine exemptions tend to be more prevalent in communities with a higher Caucasian, higher income population.
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Read more about Dr. Yang's research in Researchers in the News.
Vaccines are one of the most effective methods of preventing disease, illness, and premature death, according to the National Vaccine Advisory Committee. Research has also demonstrated that vaccines can reduce health care costs as people do not need to receive treatment for vaccine-preventable diseases.
However, recent disease outbreaks, including the measles outbreak in 2014 and 2015, have shown the potential consequences of allowing people to opt-out of vaccine requirements due to nonmedical reasons.
Using a targeted, tailored approach to communicate the importance and safety benefits of vaccines may be more effective in decreasing the number of nonmedical vaccine exemptions, according to a new study by Y. Tony Yang, associate professor in the Department of Health Administration, along with Paul Delamater, assistant professor, and Timothy Leslie, associate chair and associate professor, both of the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science, and Michelle Mello, of Stanford Law School and School of Medicine. The study is published in the American Journal of Public Health, a journal of the American Public Health Association.
The authors analyzed nonmedical vaccine exemption data from the California Department of Public Health from 2007 to 2013 to determine if sociodemographic factors, such as income, education, race, and school characteristics, were associated with nonmedical vaccine exemption rates.
The results showed the number of students with nonmedical vaccine exemptions doubled from 1.54 percent in 2007 to 3.06 percent in 2013. The 2013 data also indicated that populations with a higher median household income and a higher percentage of Caucasians in the population had higher percentages of students with nonmedical vaccine exemptions.
“Our results led us to conclude that nonmedical vaccine exemptions tend to be more prevalent in communities with a higher Caucasian, higher income population,” Yang said. “This relationship suggests that if we tailor messaging and outreach efforts about the positive effects of vaccines, those efforts may be more effective in reducing the number of nonmedical vaccine exemptions.”