Annali di igiene : medicina preventiva e di comunità
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Also in Italy, a flourishing evidence confirms the recent spread of vaccine hesitancy movements resulting in approximately 4-7% of the paediatric population not immunised every year against polio and approximately 9-15% against measles in the last few years. The aim of this paper is to describe the reasons of polio and measles missed vaccination in Italy, in the period 2015-2017, and to analyse any potential effect of the 2017 mandatory vaccination law. ⋯ Percentage of missed vaccination showed a remarkable reduction in 2017. This decrease is likely due to the introduction of mandatory vaccination law. In point of fact, "Dissent" decreased for both polio and measles during the study period. While, "Delay" increased during the 3-years. It seems that hesitant parents prefer to postpone vaccinations instead of refusing them. Counselling, parents' empowerment and vaccine education are central to contrast vaccination postponing. Thus, for parents who refuse vaccines ("Dissent"), monitoring the trend is important as well as trying to understand their reasons.