Abstract
BackgroundVaccine safety scares can undermine public confidence in vaccines and decrease immunisation rates. Understanding and addressing parental concerns arising during such scares can assist in lessening their impact. In Australia in April 2010 there was a temporary suspension of influenza vaccine for children under 5 years of age after reports of an increase in the rate of adverse events following vaccination. This qualitative study aimed to explore the impact of the vaccine suspension on parental knowledge, attitudes, trust, information needs, and intent related to influenza vaccination and broader immunisation programs.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 parents of children attending childcare centres in Sydney, Australia, between June 2010 and May 2011. Centres were selected to include parents from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Interview transcripts were coded and analysed using an approach informed by grounded theory.ResultsFindings indicated that, for those who recalled the vaccine suspension, there was a lasting sense of uncertainty and confusion and a perceived lack of information. Parents had distinct information needs following the vaccine suspension, especially in regards to vaccine safety, testing and recommendations. For many, influenza vaccination intent was conditional on receipt of information from a trusted, authoritative source allaying safety concerns. Importantly, the impact of the scare was contained to influenza vaccines only, and not other vaccine programs.ConclusionsParental concerns and information gaps following a vaccine safety scare need to be actively addressed. We provide policy and practice suggestions for proactively managing such incidents, particularly in relation to communication of timely, targeted information to parents and immunisation providers.
Highlights
Vaccine safety scares can undermine public confidence in vaccines and decrease immunisation rates
Situational analysis of the context for the interviews identified the following key constructs with the potential to intersect with the emerging themes from the interviews: societal concepts of disease; disease experiences – both personal and of contacts; proximity to perceived risk; parental time constraints; influencers – family, friends and Initial reports of febrile convulsions following receipt of seasonal influenza vaccine
Influenza vaccine suspended for children under 5 years of age
Summary
Vaccine safety scares can undermine public confidence in vaccines and decrease immunisation rates. In Australia in April 2010 there was a temporary suspension of influenza vaccine for children under 5 years of age after reports of an increase in the rate of adverse events following vaccination This qualitative study aimed to explore the impact of the vaccine suspension on parental knowledge, attitudes, trust, information needs, and intent related to influenza vaccination and broader immunisation programs. Vaccination safety scares have the potential to undermine public confidence in vaccines and lower immunisation rates, resulting in disease outbreaks and deaths. Kingdom’s (UK) measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) scare began in 1998 with an assertion that the vaccine could cause autism This was refuted in further studies [4, 5], but still led to a reduction in MMR vaccine coverage in England from 91.8% prior to the scare to a low of 79.9% in 2004 [6] and resultant disease outbreaks [7].
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