UK: MMR take-up 'lower among educated'

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http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/national_news/index.var.196571.0

mmr_takeup_lower_among_educated.php?

MMR take-up 'lower among educated'

Today

Highly educated parents were more prone to stop their children having the

measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab during the scare over the vaccine,

research has indicated.

A report into attitudes towards the joint MMR injection found a lower

take-up rate among parents had gone on to further education.

They were also less likely to to have their children immunised against other

diseases following the controversy surrounding MMR, authors of the study

found.

Claims that the vaccine increased the risk of autism, first made in a 1998

study for The Lancet, kick-started a decade-long debate over the use of the

single MMR jab.

A team from Royal Holloway, University of London, examined data from the

Millennium Cohort Study to see how attitudes towards the vaccines changed

following the allegations - which have since been debunked by much of the

scientific community.

Research found that before 1998, highly educated parents were up to 8% more

likely to take up the MMR vaccine than parents who did not go into further

education.

But by 2002, the trend had been reversed, with highly educated parents less

likely to inoculate their offspring using the MMR jab.

Of those who didn't, around half did not use single jabs either to protect

their children against measles, mumps and rubella.

Most of the relative decline in the MMR uptake in highly educated parents

happened soon after the controversy broke, researchers said.

The scare also had a knock-on effect on other childhood vaccines. After 1998

highly educated parents also reduced their relative uptake of other " non

controversial " immunisations, according to the study.

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2008, .

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How DARE anyone... especially the " highly educated " choose to think for

themselves!