A qualitative study of vaccination behaviour amongst female Polish migrants in Edinburgh, Scotland

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy is increasing and failure to vaccinate is well-recognised in Europe as a contributing factor to outbreaks of infectious diseases. In Lothian and Scotland, low vaccine uptake has been seen in migrants -notably in the Polish group who have arrived since 2004. The recent Vaccine Confidence in European Union report highlights a concerning recent decline in vaccine confidence in Poland.We held three focus groups containing 13 Polish women about the childhood vaccination programme in Lothian, with specific focus on influenza and Human Papillomavirus vaccinations. Key emergent themes were: trust in the national vaccination policy, trust in the vaccination providers (health professionals), trust in the individual vaccines, balancing the risk of disease, and language and communication.Polish norms, beliefs and behaviours shape how Polish migrants navigate the UK health system and its vaccination programme. While not confident in the Scottish primary care model and its generalist practitioners, the participants liked the ethos of informed consent in Scotland and compared this favourably with the compulsory vaccination policy in Poland. There was a belief that vaccines in Scotland were of higher quality than Poland and with fewer adverse effects.Respondents reported returning to Poland for specialist clinical appointments and diagnostic testing. They regularly access Polish clinical expertise and their opinions about health are influenced by Polish friends and family. They say they have difficulty finding official UK Government and health authority vaccination material and often access Polish media, online resources and information., They are familiar with antivaccination activities in Poland.Consequently, there are important unmet information needs for this group of parents who may not be making truly informed choices about vaccination. This requires further investigation especially as migration continues and declining immunisation uptake is reported in many countries across Europe.

Vaccination concerns, beliefs and practices among Ukrainian migrants in Poland: A qualitative study

“…However, UMs complained that there were no translated versions of vaccination materials accessible at the PHC facilities. This was also observed in other studies related to migrant populations [4,7,19,23] and may re ect a lack of adequate information available for migrants.…”

“…Focus group interviews were transcribed verbatim. Two research team members conducted a similar study among Polish migrants in Scotland [19] and used their experience and expertise to propose the main topics for thematical analysis with the help of the stages outlined by Braun and Clarke [24]: data familiarisation, coding and theme identi cation and re nement. Later all of the authors reviewed the translated transcripts independently.…”

“…An interview topic guide (Additional le 1*) was prepared by the research team following a literature review [4,19,23]. Topics included: general views about healthcare and experience of vaccination in Ukraine and Poland, sources of information about vaccination, vaccine quality and safety, risks posed by infectious diseases, access to healthcare in Poland, the availability of information from Polish health service workers.…”

“…Different approaches to self-paid vaccines in Poland and Ukraine may also shape the UMs opinions. Despite economic reasons, the lack of information on vaccination bene ts could additionally play a role [4,19].…”

“…These outbreaks are evidence that vaccination programs do not reach all of those targeted by the vaccine, irrespective of origin country [19].…”