Determinants of Parental Attitudes towards Children's Vaccination in Lithuania: An Online Survey.

Our findings confirmed that vaccine hesitancy was associated with not being vaccinated in childhood themselves, lack of information from medical practitioners and male gender. The price of vaccines also had an impact on immunisation rates - more than one-third of the vaccine supporting parents indicated that the cost of paid vaccinations was too high. The main incentive for vaccine compliance was parents' desire to protect their children and society from infectious diseases. Whereas vaccine-hesitant parents were mostly concerned about already occurring side effects or their risk. There was no consensus, whether vaccination of children should be mandatory in Lithuania, as the answers to the question were almost evenly distributed. The formation of parents' attitudes towards children's vaccination is a complex process that is determined by parents' attitudes towards the health care system, lack of trust in doctors, and gaps in communication about the benefits and risks of vaccination. All of this information should be taken into account in health policy-making.