Why Are Adolescents Underimmunized?

Many common barriers exist to access to care have been identified for low-income and minority populations.  Lower levels of education, lower-income jobs, and lack of health insurance are all factors that result in a harsh political reality.  These factors decrease access to our health care system:

¬…       Access, Access, Access

¬…       Insurance coverage ’Äì can they pay for the visits and the vaccines themselves?

¬…       Regular, consistent primary care ’Äì are people getting to the doctor regularly?  Do they only see the doctor in emergency situations when preventative care cannot be considered? Do they only see the doctor in emergency situations because of their particular living situation?

¬…       Transportation ’Äì connected to poverty, can people even get to the hospital in a reasonable amount of time?  Is it convenient?

¬…       Poverty ’Äì can they pay?

¬…       Education ’Äì is it important to people? Do they feel like it has relevance based on the information they have?  If they had more information would they get vaccinated?

¬…       Language barriers (connected to access, poverty)

¬…       Cultural differences

¬…       Attitudes

¬…       Checkups, regular care are for younger children, not adolescents (regular visits make immunization possible)

¬…       Parents feeling they can control their child’Äôs susceptibility to a disease

¬…       Parents doubting reliability of vaccine information

¬…       Parents feeling that if other children are all vaccinated their child will not even be exposed to the disease

¬…       Fear of the risks of the vaccine

¬…       Err on the side of less than too much

This web site was developed by undergraduate students at Brown University as a project for a course in vaccine development (Bio 160). An effort has been made to present information on the prevalent opinions available at this time.  References to published articles and acknowledgements of other sources are cited in the text.  The authors of this web site are not certified medical professionals.  Biomedical research and clinical medicine are constantly evolving fields, thus it is possible that significant advances in research and treatments will come into existence following posting of this web site.