A plea for clear language on vaccine safety

MacDonald, Noni E.; Picard, André

doi:10.1503/cmaj.090363

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…[20] Avoid using academic jargon that can be misconstrued or misunderstood. [21] There are many good resources for answering parental vaccine questions using clear language that avoids academic language pitfalls, including: the Canadian Paediatric Society's book, Your Child's Best Shot; [22] the Immunization Communication Tool from British Columbia; [23] Basics and Common Questions (www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/ default.htm) and Provider Resources for Vaccine Conversations with Parents (www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/patient-ed/conversations/index.html), two websites from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA); and Caring for Kids (www.caringforkids.cps.ca), a bilingual website for parents and caregivers produced by the CPS.…”

Section: Stay On Message and Use Clear Language To Present Evidence Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Working with vaccine-hesitant parents

MacDonald¹,

Finlay²

2013

Paediatrics &Amp; Child Health

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While most Canadian parents ensure that their children are immunized on time, some are hesitant about vaccination, delay vaccinations or outright refuse recommended vaccines. This practice point offers clinicians evidencebased guidance on how to work with vaccine-hesitant parents, especially those with safety concerns. Suggested steps include: understanding the specific parental vaccine concerns; using motivational interviewing techniques; staying on message and using clear language to present evidence of disease risks, and vaccine benefits and risks fairly and accurately; informing parents about the rigour of the vaccine safety system; addressing issues related to pain from immunization; and avoiding dismissal of children from a practice because parents refuse to immunize. Because immunization is one of the most important preventive health measures, responsible for saving literally millions of lives, addressing the concerns of vaccine-hesitant parents must be a priority for health care providers.

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Section: Stay On Message and Use Clear Language To Present Evidence Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Working with vaccine-hesitant parents

MacDonald¹,

Finlay²

2013

Paediatrics &Amp; Child Health

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“…Academic jargon can easily obscure the intended scientific meaning, confusing untrained journalists and parents, and fostering misinterpretation by anti-vaccine advocates [39]. This can lead to anti-vaccine websites using misinformation in support of their beliefs.…”

Section: Clarity Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Internet provides ready access to a multitude of scientific reports, including those from august bodies such as the Institute of Medicine in the United States and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the United Kingdom and to a wide array of open access academic journals. Thus, greater care is now needed to ensure that the conclusions, implications, and executive summaries in academic articles and reports are easy to understand and are not obfuscated by jargon [39].…”

Section: Clarity Of Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Building Confidence in Vaccines

Smith

Appleton

MacDonald

2012

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

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Despite significant efforts by governments, organizations and individuals to maintain public trust in vaccines, concerns persist and threaten to undermine the effectiveness of immunization programs. Vaccine advocates have traditionally focused on education based on evidence to address vaccine concerns and hesitancy. However, being informed of the facts about immunization does not always translate into support for immunization. While many are persuaded by scientific evidence, others are more influenced by cognitive shortcuts, beliefs, societal pressure and the media, with the latter group more likely to hesitate over immunization. Understanding evidence from the behaviour sciences opens new doors to better support individual decision-making about immunization. Drawing on heuristics, this overview explores how individuals find, process and utilize vaccine information and the role health care professionals and society can play in vaccine decision-making. Traditional, evidence-based approaches aimed at staunching the erosion of public confidence in vaccines are proving inadequate and expensive. Enhancing public confidence in vaccines will be complex, necessitating a much wider range of strategies than currently used. Success will require a shift in how the public, health care professionals and media are informed and educated about vaccine benefits, risks and safety; considerable introspection and change in current academic and vaccine decision-making practices; development of proactive strategies to broadly address current and potential future concerns, as well as targeted interventions such as programs to address pain with immunization. This overview outlines ten such opportunities for change to improve vaccine confidence.

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“…Information needs to be presented in a way that best supports informed decision-making, which ensures that parents have the necessary foundation for making sound decisions. [99][100][101][102][103][104][105] 2. Physicians and other clinicians should tell parents when their beliefs about the vaccine in question are unsupported or disproved by evidence.…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood Immunization: When Physicians and Parents Disagree

Gilmour

Harrison

Asadi³

et al. 2011

Pediatrics

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Persistent fears about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, and whether immunization programs are still needed, have led a significant minority of parents to refuse vaccination. Are parents within their rights when refusing to consent to vaccination? How ought physicians respond? Focusing on routine childhood immunization, we consider the ethical, legal, and clinical issues raised by 3 aspects of parental vaccine refusal: (1) physician counseling; (2) parental decision-making; and (3) continuing the physician-patient relationship despite disagreement. We also suggest initiatives that could increase confidence in immunization programs.

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A plea for clear language on vaccine safety

Cited by 11 publications

References 1 publication

Working with vaccine-hesitant parents

Working with vaccine-hesitant parents

Building Confidence in Vaccines

Childhood Immunization: When Physicians and Parents Disagree

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