How do parents make their decision about letting their child get a BCG vaccination?

Introduction:
In a large prospective randomised clinical trial in Denmark we are testing the hypothesis that
compared to non-BCG-vaccinated infants, infants who are BCG vaccinated at birth
experience less hospitalisations, use less antibiotics, and develop less atopic disease in early
childhood.
My focus for this project is parents decision making and risk evaluation. I want to investigate
how parents make their decision about letting their child get a BCG vaccination and how they
evaluate the risk of side effects.
Method:
Before the clinical trial was started, we conducted 5 focus groups with expectant mothers and
fathers to discuss considerations for and against letting their newborn child vaccinate with
BCG in order to achieve a non-specific stimulation of the immune system and to discuss their
concerns about side effects.
The focus groups were analysed qualitatively.
Results:
The pre-analysis of the results shows, that some danish parents are still concerned about nondescribed
and non-specific side effects, even if the BCG-vaccine has been used for over 100
years and the side effects is well-described in medical research.
They express doubt about the medical descriptions of the side effects and wants to discuss it
with a professional they trust before they can decide to let their child vaccinate with BCG or
not.
I will show how parents try to make their own risk evaluation on the basis of a lay
epidemiology, as described by Davison, Frankel and Davey Smith (1). They use their own
interpretation of cases of illness and atopic diseases in their personal network and family to
evaluate risk for their child to develop atopic diseases or get hospitalised. This lay
epidemiologi forms the basis for their decision.
Davison C, Frankel S, Davey Smith G. Inheriting heart trouble: the relevance of common-sense ideas to preventive
measures. Health Education Research1989;4:329–40