Barriers to and facilitators of child influenza vaccine – Perspectives from parents, teens, marketing and healthcare professionals
Highlights
► We conducted focus groups regarding perspectives on child influenza vaccination. ► Barriers were fear, mistrust, half truths, inconvenient or unnecessary vaccination. ► Facilitators were access, health promotion, child request, and not missing work. ► Practice-based strategies were staff buy-in, standing orders, and vaccine clinics. ► Teen-specific strategies included using schools and web-based social networks.
Section snippets
Background
The burden of influenza on children is substantial. For every 100 children, an annual average of 6–15 outpatient visits and 3–9 courses of antibiotics are attributable to influenza [1]. Millions of school absences and lost work days among parents caring for sick children occur each year and in 2010–2011, 116 pediatric deaths associated with influenza were reported in the United States [2]. Influenza vaccination provides protection to the individual child, which also confers some protection of
Methods
Focus groups were conducted with healthcare providers, parents, teens, and marketing professionals who were selected to represent a cross-section of socioeconomic status (SES) groups. The purpose of the focus group discussions was to expand current understanding of the barriers and facilitators of childhood immunizations specific to influenza.
Results
Of the 91 individuals who participated in the focus groups, 39 were immunization and health professionals, 21 were parents, 22 were adolescents, and nine were marketing professionals. Participants within all groups were ethnically mixed and included Caucasian, East Asian (Chinese, Thai), Asian Indian, and African American, and Hispanic individuals. Teen participants or parent participants had children who were in public school, private school, and in home school. The majority were female (n = 68)
Discussion
Based on the findings of focus groups of parents, healthcare providers, teens, marketing professionals and other vaccination stakeholders, there are many potential strategies for improving influenza vaccination rates. These strategies parallel those outlined by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services [10] which suggested: (1) increasing demand for vaccine; (2) enhanced access; and (3) improvement in provider interventions. We found that parents, teens and healthcare staff are seeking
Conclusion
To improve influenza vaccination rates for children, participants recommended that influenza vaccination campaigns address the need for vaccination, concerns about safety, vaccine efficacy and indirect benefits to others. They recommended strategies targeting adolescents, using web-based social marketing technologies, improving clinic-based access and developing campaigns based in schools.
Conflict of Interest: Drs. Zimmerman and Lin have research grants from Sanofi. Drs. Zimmerman, Nowalk and
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2021, VaccineCitation Excerpt :Clinicians may dismiss the concerns of the vaccine hesitant child/parent; view the vaccination simply as a task to complete quickly [27,44]; do not take the time and effort to persuade the vaccine hesitant child/parent to vaccinate [45], or even discharge the family from their services if the latter default their vaccination schedule [25]. Thus, it is pertinent to assess clinicians’ attitude and motivation towards vaccination through appraisal and engage them in discussions; empower them with accurate information; clarify their doubts and motivate them to be proactive in initiating conversation with parents to support their children’s vaccination [26,35,46]. Positive attitudes towards vaccination and the belief that vaccination is a public health priority are positively associated with higher vaccination rates [47].