Common issues and improvement solution of vaccine hesitancy in children with underlying neurological conditions: Experience from one National Children's Medical Center in China.

BACKGROUND

Parents and healthcare providers usually defer or avoid immunization for children with neurological conditions. This study was conducted to investigate the common issues of immunization among these special children and the impact of specialists' recommendation on improving immunization practice.

METHOD: We included 2,221 children with underlying neurological conditions seeking vaccination consultation at the first Immunization Advisory Clinic in China during 2017-2019. The primary neurological conditions and immunization status were analyzed. All parents were informed to self-report the adverse events following catch-up immunization. For specially concerned children with hereditary disorders, immune-related encephalopathy and epilepsy, we conducted the active follow-up to monitor the compliance with recommendation and the adverse events.

RESULT: All counselling children were assessed as not having any contraindication of immunization. A total of 2,019 (90.9%) children with underlying neurological conditions had delayed immunization and 99 (4.5%) had non-immunization. The coverage rate of age-appropriate vaccines was 56.1%. The most concerned vaccines were diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis combined vaccine, diphtheria and tetanus combined vaccine, meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine and Japanese encephalitis vaccine. Resuming immunization was recommended for the 2,048 (92.2%) children. Most of counselling children complied with the specialists' recommendation. Neither progress nor flaring of the neurological medical conditions was reported from parents.

CONCLUSION

Vaccine hesitancy was a common issue for Chinese children with all kinds of neurological conditions. Specialized consultation on immunization is helpful to build vaccine confidence for the special children. Immunization for children with underlying neurological conditions is generally safe.