To close the childhood immunization gap, we need a richer understanding of parents' decision-making

Abstract

Vaccination is widely acknowledged as one of the most successful public health interventions globally and in most high-income countries childhood vaccination coverage rates are moderately high. Yet in many instances, immunisation rates remain below aspirational targets and have shown only modest progress toward those targets in recent years, despite concerted efforts to improve uptake. In part, coverage rates reflect individual parents' vaccination attitudes and decisions and, because vaccination decision-making is complex and context-specific, it remains challenging at individual and community levels to assist parents to make positive decisions. Consequently, in the search for opportunities to improve immunisation coverage, there has been a renewed research focus on parents' decision-making. This review provides an overview of the literature surrounding parents' vaccination decision-making, offering suggestions for where efforts to increase vaccination coverage should be targeted and identifying areas for further research.

Keywords: attitudes; beliefs; decision-making; hesitant parents; immunisation; parents; preventative behavior; vaccination.

Figure 1.

A behavioral-ecological model of vaccination decision-making. The five levels and example factors. Adapted from The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.