Objective: Fewer than half of the 2-year-old children in the United States are fully immunized. This article reviews the literature on barriers to immunization in children and examines how pharmacists can promote childhood immunizations by acting as an educational resource and providing increased access to vaccines.
Data sources: Published data were collected from the literature. Anecdotal data were collected from unstructured interviews with parents and health care professionals at two childhood immunization clinics in Des Moines, Iowa.
Data synthesis: Data from the literature were compared with data informally collected in the clinics. Both the literature and interviews indicated a variety of structural and personal barriers that may prevent parents from having children vaccinated.
Conclusion: By collecting and documenting adequate vaccination histories, pharmacists can be a resource for parents and health care professionals who are unsure of a child's immunization status. Pharmacists may wish to establish immunization clinics in their pharmacies as a method to increase access to vaccines.