Louise E Smith1, Richard Amlôt2, John Weinman3, Jenny Yiend4, G James Rubin5. 1. King's College London, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response, London, UK; King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, UK. Electronic address: louise.7.smith@kcl.ac.uk. 2. Emergency Response Department Science & Technology, Public Health England, Porton Down, UK. 3. King's College London, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, UK. 4. King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, UK. 5. King's College London, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response, London, UK; King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, UK.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Many parents make a conscious decision not to vaccinate their child. Multiple beliefs and perceptions surround this choice. If uptake of routine child vaccination is to increase, public health communications about vaccines must be informed by evidence on the factors affecting uptake. METHOD: We conducted a systematic review to investigate psychological, social and contextual factors associated with uptake of routine vaccines in young children. Studies were included if they reported analyses of the association between psychological factors and uptake or included parents' self-reported reasons for or against vaccination. RESULTS: Our search identified 9110 citations after deduplication. Sixty-eight citations describing sixty-four studies were included in the review. The quality of the studies was mixed. There is strong evidence for an association between vaccination uptake and: not perceiving vaccines to cause adverse effects; general positive attitudes towards vaccination; positive vaccine recommendations; and perceiving fewer practical difficulties of vaccination. While there was good evidence for an association between vaccination and perceived susceptibility to the illness, evidence for an association between perceived severity of an illness and vaccination was weak. Other factors associated with vaccination include knowledge about the vaccine, social influences and trust in the healthcare profession. Having increased information about the vaccine was associated with vaccination, but the influence of different sources of information needs more research. CONCLUSION: Understanding which factors are consistently associated with the decision to vaccinate one's child is important to identify messages which should be targeted by public health communications about routine child vaccinations.
BACKGROUND: Many parents make a conscious decision not to vaccinate their child. Multiple beliefs and perceptions surround this choice. If uptake of routine child vaccination is to increase, public health communications about vaccines must be informed by evidence on the factors affecting uptake. METHOD: We conducted a systematic review to investigate psychological, social and contextual factors associated with uptake of routine vaccines in young children. Studies were included if they reported analyses of the association between psychological factors and uptake or included parents' self-reported reasons for or against vaccination. RESULTS: Our search identified 9110 citations after deduplication. Sixty-eight citations describing sixty-four studies were included in the review. The quality of the studies was mixed. There is strong evidence for an association between vaccination uptake and: not perceiving vaccines to cause adverse effects; general positive attitudes towards vaccination; positive vaccine recommendations; and perceiving fewer practical difficulties of vaccination. While there was good evidence for an association between vaccination and perceived susceptibility to the illness, evidence for an association between perceived severity of an illness and vaccination was weak. Other factors associated with vaccination include knowledge about the vaccine, social influences and trust in the healthcare profession. Having increased information about the vaccine was associated with vaccination, but the influence of different sources of information needs more research. CONCLUSION: Understanding which factors are consistently associated with the decision to vaccinate one's child is important to identify messages which should be targeted by public health communications about routine child vaccinations.
Authors: Susan M Sherman; Louise E Smith; Julius Sim; Richard Amlôt; Megan Cutts; Hannah Dasch; G James Rubin; Nick Sevdalis Journal: Hum Vaccin Immunother Date: 2020-11-26 Impact factor: 3.452