Public Health Messages to Address Vaccine Hesitancy

NCT03395106 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: H2016:390
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 883
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

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:

1. 1.Develop and pre-test four variations of news media stories that vary by source (parent versus physician) and content (intuitive versus deliberative);
2. 2.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
3. 3.Explore which media story variation may be more effective in improving vaccination attitudes and intentions for different parental decision-making styles (deliberative versus intuitive).

Conditions

Vaccine Hesitancy

Keywords

vaccine; public health

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• 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 Outcomes (1)

• Intention to Vaccinate

  Change in baseline measured up to 1 day after content delivery

Study Arms (4)

Parent source + intuitive story content

EXPERIMENTAL

Behavioral: Parent source; Behavioral: Intuitive content

Doctor source + intuitive story content

EXPERIMENTAL

Behavioral: Doctor source; Behavioral: Intuitive content

Parent source + deliberative content

EXPERIMENTAL

Behavioral: Parent source; Behavioral: Deliberative content

Doctor source + deliberative content

EXPERIMENTAL

Behavioral: Doctor source; Behavioral: Deliberative content

Interventions

Parent source BEHAVIORAL

Having a parent feature prominently in a news story

Parent source + deliberative content; Parent source + intuitive story content

Doctor source BEHAVIORAL

Having a doctor feature prominently in a news story

Doctor source + deliberative content; Doctor source + intuitive story content

Deliberative content BEHAVIORAL

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.

Doctor source + deliberative content; Parent source + deliberative content

Intuitive content BEHAVIORAL

News story content focuses on the consequences of not vaccinating (including vaccine preventable diseases) and the decisional regret.

Doctor source + intuitive story content; Parent source + intuitive story content

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Parents over 18 living in Canada with a YOUNGEST child is less than 24 months.

You may not qualify if:

• Parents who have a YOUNGEST child older than 24 months
• A parent who is pregnant, before the first trimester is complete

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Manitoba: lead
• Canadian Immunization Research Network: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Manitoba

Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2M 3Y9, Canada

Location

Related Publications (2)

• Pachur T, Spaar, M. Domain-specific preferences for intuition and deliberation in decision making. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. 4:303-311, 2015.

  BACKGROUND

• Opel DJ, Taylor JA, Zhou C, Catz S, Myaing M, Mangione-Smith R. The relationship between parent attitudes about childhood vaccines survey scores and future child immunization status: a validation study. JAMA Pediatr. 2013 Nov;167(11):1065-71. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.2483.

  PMID: 24061681 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Vaccination Hesitancy

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Vaccination Refusal; Treatment Refusal; Treatment Adherence and Compliance; Health Behavior; Behavior

Study Officials

• Michelle Driedger, PhD

  University of Manitoba

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Statisticians completing the analysis of the primary outcome will be blinded.
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Factorial design 2x2

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 12, 2017
• First Posted: January 10, 2018
• Study Start: July 9, 2018
• Primary Completion: November 9, 2018
• Study Completion: November 9, 2018
• Last Updated: October 10, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-10

Locations

CA (1)