TABLE 5.

Strategies Used and Perceived Effectiveness of Strategies (N = 453)

Strategy	Frequency Used, %			Perceived Effectiveness, %
	Often or Always	Sometimes	Rarely/Never	Very Effective	Somewhat Effective	Not Very/Not at All Effective
Informing the parents that you immunize (or would immunize) your own children according to the recommended schedule.	66	25	9	20	64	16
Explaining that deviating from the current vaccination schedule puts their child at risk for vaccine preventable diseases.a	68	19	13	9	55	36
Informing parents that “spreading out” vaccines is against your recommendation.a	66	20	15	7	52	41
Discussing recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases with parents.a	60	31	9	14	58	28
Telling parents that you think it is more painful for their child to come back for multiple visits for shots rather than get them all at once.c	50	31	20	9	46	45
Explaining that alternative schedules have not been well studied for safety or effectiveness and that the recommended schedule has.a	49	32	19	4	45	51
Involving the parent in vaccine administration by having them hold their child in a comforting way.b,c	49	30	22	14	36	51
Explaining that deviating from the current schedule puts other people at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases.a,c	49	30	22	2	32	66
Offering to ease the pain of the child’s shots by allowing them to breastfeed or bottle-feed.b,c	23	34	43	6	32	62
Offering to the parent that he or she can leave the room during vaccine administration.c	20	31	49	3	23	73
Informing parents that they will be charged for any extra visits as a result of “spreading out” vaccines.a	10	16	74	3	21	76
Offering to ease the pain of the child’s shots by using anesthetic cream or other numbing medication.	3	10	87	2	22	76
Informing parents that if they want to “spread out” the vaccine series, they should seek care from a different provider.a	3	4	93	4	12	84
Informing parents that your office does not have the capacity to handle children coming back for multiple shot visits.c	2	3	95	1	6	93

^aP < .05 for comparison between specialties (χ² test) in which pediatricians use more often than family medicine physicians.

^bP < .05 for comparison between specialties (χ² test) in which family medicine physicians use more often than pediatricians.

^cP < .05 for comparison between specialties (χ² test) in which family medicine physicians perceive higher effectiveness than pediatricians.