Strategies for Addressing and Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy.

Every day across the United States, family physicians wrestle with how to best communicate to patients the clear benefits and potential harms of recommended vaccinations. When the current childhood immunization schedule is followed, it is estimated that 42,000 deaths and 20 million cases of disease are prevented annually.1 Additionally, from 2001 to 2010, vaccine use derived net savings of nearly $14 billion in direct costs and $69 billion in total societal costs.1 Because vaccines provide such overwhelming public health benefits, the American Academy of Family Physicians does not support nonmedical immunization exemption policies (http://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/ immunizations-exemptions.html). Despite broad support for vaccination from the medical community, only 59% of children up to 18 years of age and 44% of adults were immunized against influenza during the 2014-2015 season.2 Although the Healthy People 2020 goal to have 90% immunization coverage in children for several vaccines has been met, only 72% of children were up-to-date on all of their vaccinations by three years of age.3 In some cases, low rates of immunization are a result of parental concerns and misconceptions. Physicians questioning how to effectively address these concerns can apply the following tips for reducing vaccine hesitancy.