The Study of Parents' Convictions and Attitudes to the Vaccination Against Rotavirus Gastroenteritis in Ukraine

Rotavirus Gastroenteritis (RVGE) is one of the most frequent causes of diarrhea in children that can lead to severe dehydration. Specific etiotropic therapy of RVGE is absent but the disease can be prevented by vaccination that is recommended by WHO for inclusion in all national programs. In Ukraine, vaccination against RVGE is non-mandatory; whereas peoples’ confidence in vaccination is low. The objective: the study aimed to investigate parents’ awareness about RVGE and rotavirus vaccines, positive and negative influencers on having their babies getting vaccinated against RVGE and sources of information. Materials and methods. This qualitative study included structured discussions with parents of children less than 5 years old. The parents were distributed into six groups based on criteria of RVGE presence/absence in medical history and place of residence (large city, medium-sized city, and village). Descriptive thematic analysis of discussions using verbatim transcripts in Microsoft Word files was conducted using MAXQDA qualitative data analysis software. Results. The majority of parents are aware about RVGE. The sources of this knowledge are; internet, experience from other parents, and communication with healthcare practitioners (including nurses). The level of knowledge about rotavirus vaccine is low and the majority of parents learned about it after their children were too old to receive the vaccine. Parents whose children have experienced severe RVGE doubt that they would vaccinate their children, even if they knew about the existence of a vaccine prior to the disease. The causes of such doubts are lack of trust in healthcare practitioners and non-mandatory status of the vaccine. Conclusions. Informing parents about RVGE vaccination, when the child is too old to receive it, appears to be the main barrier. Additional barriers include the overall lack of information about vaccination, the unavailability of the vaccine against RVGE, and the need to pay for it due to its non-mandatory status