Immunization against influenza was low in one group of high-risk children surveyed, and many of those parents who had their children immunized reported they did so on the recommendation of their pediatrician, reported Dr. Katherine A. Poehling of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville,

As part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ongoing surveillance study, questionnaires were administered to the parents of 189 children who were hospitalized between Jan. 10 and Feb. 25, 2000, for fever and/or respiratory symptoms.

Forty-eight percent of the children had high-risk conditions that made them candidates for immunization against influenza, including asthma, malignancy, congenital heart disease, or cystic fibrosis (Pediatrics 108[6]:e99, 2001).

Overall, 22% of the children had been immunized against influenza, including 31% of the children at high risk for complications from such an infection and 14% of the kids at average risk.

The parents of 38 (90%) of the immunized children reported that their physician had recommended the vaccination, compared with 16(11%) of the parents of the unimmunized children.

The physician's recommendation for immunization was the only independent predictor of influenza vaccination, according to findings from a multivariate logistic regression analysis, the investigators maintained.

When asked why they had not had their child vaccinated, 29% of parents reported they did not know there was an influenza vaccine for children, and 27% said that their child's physician had not recommended it.

Only 11% of the parents of unvaccinated children reported that their physician had recommended the vaccination; the most common reason they cited for ignoring that advice was fear of the vaccine's side effects.