Vaccine-related discussions in online communities for parents. A quantitative overview, 2012–2019

Abstract

Vaccinations are a medical success story. However, many individuals still experience doubts, which challenge vaccine compliance. Online communities for parents are important sources for the discussion about vaccination with similar others. They serve as social support platforms, where parents exchange informational, emotional, and esteem support. Our study provides a structured overview of vaccine-related online discussions of parents. The content of the four most popular German online communities for parents (2012-2019) was obtained with web scraping. Structural topic models were used to characterize the exchanges about vaccination in 98,505 discussion posts. We identified 27 aspects of the vaccination discussions, which were sorted into four general perspectives. The general vaccination debate perspective (6 aspects, 24% of all content) covered societal and public health debates. The specific vaccinations perspective (8 aspects, 16%) addressed vaccinations against specific diseases. Parents discussed various vaccine-related practical issues (7 aspects, 20%). The relationship and communication perspective (6 aspects, 19%) collected aspects concerned with community building. The findings highlighted the diversity of vaccine-related online discussions related to all types of social support. Investigating online exchanges can inform public health communicators as well as health professionals which parental support needs should be addressed more comprehensively.