Vaccine, Medication Safety Parents’ Top Research Priorities

A poll released by the C.S. Mott Children’s National Poll on Children’s Health shows that nearly 9 in 10 parents rank vaccine safety, and the effectiveness and safety of medicines, as the most important topics in children’s health research today.

The poll, which asked 1,621 parents age 18 and older in August 2010 to rate the importance of different types of medical research for children’s health, found that parents rated the topics as follows:

1. Vaccine safety (89 percent)
2. Medication safety and effectiveness (88 percent)
3. Things in the environment that could lead to health issues (72 percent)
4. Foods that might protect against cancer (67 percent )
5. New treatment for rare childhood diseases (66 percent)
6. Cancer-causing foods (64 percent )
7. New treatments for common childhood illnesses (64 percent)
8. Leading causes of injuries (46 percent)
“In this poll, parents overwhelmingly see the need for research on the safety of vaccines and medications given to children,” says Matthew Davis, M.D., director of the poll and associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine in the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the U-M Medical School. “Parental concerns about the safety of vaccines have increased markedly over the last decade, due to alleged but later disproven links between vaccines and autism and related concerns about mercury and other preservatives used in vaccines.

“Assurances from health care providers and government officials that vaccines are safe have been insufficient. Rather, it’s clear from this poll that parents want more research about the safety of vaccines for their young children and adolescents.”

Similarly, views that medication safety and effectiveness are important areas of research may be prompted by high-profile recalls of medications, or by recent reports suggesting that some common over-the-counter medicines are ineffective for kids, according to Davis.

“Clearly, parents recognize the importance of continuing research about medications, and see the potential for research to help them be better informed about the potential benefits and risks of treatments for their children,” says Davis, who is also associate professor of public policy at the U-M Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health http://www.med.umich.edu/mott/npch/

Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit: http://www.med.umich.edu/mott/research/chearcurrent.html

Clinical and health research volunteer opportunities: UMClinicalStudies.org.

Data Source: This report presents findings from a nationally representative household survey conducted exclusively by Knowledge Networks, Inc, for C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital via a method used in many published studies. The survey was administered on August 13 – September 7, 2010 to a randomly selected, stratified group of parents aged 18 and older (n=1,621) from the Knowledge Networks standing panel that closely resembles the U.S. population. The sample was subsequently weighted to reflect population figures from the Census Bureau. The survey completion rate was 57 percent among panel members contacted to participate. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2 to 3 percentage points, depending on the question.

To learn more about Knowledge Networks, visit www.knowledgenetworks.com.

Purpose/Funding: The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health – based at the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the University of Michigan and funded by the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and the University of Michigan Health System – is designed to measure major health care issues and trends for U.S. children.

This Report includes research findings from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, which do not represent the opinions of the investigators or the opinions of the University of Michigan.