Pediatricians' Immunization Consent Practice, Washington State
1 Committee on Infectious Diseases, Washington Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics PO Box C5371 Seattle, WA 98105
The new requirement for obtaining written informed consent for routine childhood immunization in many publicly funded immunization programs prompted us to look at current immunization consent practices of pediatricians in Washington state.
We mailed a questionnaire (pp 420-421) to 338 pediatricians and allied health professionals on the mailing list of the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. One hundred seventy-six (52%) responded. The results are summarized in the accompanying Table. Although each question was asked for each routine immunization-diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT), tetanus diphtheria toxoid (Td), oral polio vaccine (OPV), measles-mumps-rubella (MMR)there was almost no difference in consent procedure by type of vaccine.




