Public Health Messages to Address Vaccine Hesitancy

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Views on vaccines range from those who are strongly supportive to those who are stridently opposed and will not budge from identity-based core beliefs about vaccines. In between these poles are numerous others who can delay, be reluctant (but still accept), or refuse/accept some vaccines for their children but not others. It is for these vaccine-hesitant parents that constitute the 'middle ground' of this spectrum where the most immediate and productive gains can be made towards enhancing vaccination acceptance and improving uptake. However, navigating this noisy communications environment is difficult, given the array of confusing and conflicting information available from multiple and competing sources. To date, there is no consensus on how best to use communication to respond to vaccine hesitancy. Building on two Canada-wide surveys of parents, the goal of this research is to identify which communication strategies show the greatest impact in reducing parental vaccine hesitancy and improving vaccination intentions. The specific objectives are to: Develop and pre-test four variations of news media stories that vary by source (parent versus physician) and content (intuitive versus deliberative); Examine the impact of vaccine hesitant parents' exposure to vaccine communications that vary in source (parent versus physician) and content (intuitive versus deliberative) on primary (vaccine hesitant attitudes) and secondary (vaccine intentions) outcomes; and Explore which media story variation may be more effective in improving vaccination attitudes and intentions for different parental decision-making styles (deliberative versus intuitive).

Official Title
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Developing and Evaluating Public Health Messages to Address Vaccine Hesitancy

Conditions
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Vaccine Hesitancy

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Parent source
* Behavioral: Doctor source
* Behavioral: Deliberative content
* Behavioral: Intuitive content


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Parents over 18 living in Canada with a YOUNGEST child is less than 24 months. Exclusion Criteria: Parents who have a YOUNGEST child older than 24 months A parent who is pregnant, before the first trimester is complete

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Factorial design 2x2
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Parent source + intuitive story content<br> | Behavioral: Parent source<br>* Having a parent feature prominently in a news story<br>Behavioral: Intuitive content<br>* News story content focuses on the consequences of not vaccinating (including vaccine preventable diseases) and the decisional regret.<br>|
| Experimental: Doctor source + intuitive story content<br> | Behavioral: Doctor source<br>* Having a doctor feature prominently in a news story<br>Behavioral: Intuitive content<br>* News story content focuses on the consequences of not vaccinating (including vaccine preventable diseases) and the decisional regret.<br>|
| Experimental: Parent source + deliberative content<br> | Behavioral: Parent source<br>* Having a parent feature prominently in a news story<br>Behavioral: Deliberative content<br>* News story content includes process of weighing the risks/benefits of vaccinating, the importance of vaccines for community protection, and concludes with a recommendation to vaccinate.<br>|
| Experimental: Doctor source + deliberative content<br> | Behavioral: Doctor source<br>* Having a doctor feature prominently in a news story<br>Behavioral: Deliberative content<br>* News story content includes process of weighing the risks/benefits of vaccinating, the importance of vaccines for community protection, and concludes with a recommendation to vaccinate.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vaccine Hesitancy | Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV). The PACV is a validated 15 question survey on vaccine hesitancy. | Change in baseline measured up to 1 day after content delivery | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intention to Vaccinate | intention to vaccinate item using a 5 point likert scale ranging from very unlikely to vaccinate to very likely to vaccinate, and see if there is a one-response shift in participant intentions among vaccine hesitant parents. | Change in baseline measured up to 1 day after content delivery | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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vaccine, public health