Assessments of global drivers of vaccine hesitancy in 2014—Looking beyond safety concerns

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy has become the focus of growing attention and concern globally despite overwhelming evidence of the value of vaccines in preventing disease and saving the lives of millions of individuals every year.Measuring vaccine hesitancy and its determinants worldwide is important in order to understand the scope of the problem and for the development of evidence-based targeted strategies to reduce hesitancy.Two indicators to assess vaccine hesitancy were developed to capture its nature and scope at the national and subnational level to collect data in 2014: 1) The top 3 reasons for not accepting vaccines according to the national schedule in the past year and whether the response was opinion- or assessment-based and 2) Whether an assessment (or measurement) of the level of confidence in vaccination had taken place at national or subnational level in the previous 5 years.The most frequently cited reasons for vaccine hesitancy globally related to (1) the risk-benefit of vaccines, (2) knowledge and awareness issues, (3) religious, cultural, gender or socio-economic factors. Major issues were fear of side effects, distrust in vaccination and lack of information on immunization or immunization services. The analysis revealed that 29% of all countries had done an assessment of the level of confidence in their country, suggesting that vaccine confidence was an issue of importance.Monitoring vaccine hesitancy is critical because of its influence on the success of immunization programs. To our knowledge, the proposed indicators provide the first global snapshot of reasons driving vaccine hesitancy and depicting its widespread nature, as well as the extent of assessments conducted by countries.

Vaccine confidence and hesitancy in Brazil

“…This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the São Leopoldo Mandic University, registration n. 51606415. 8 Table 2 Distribution of the respondents (n = 952) by age group, marital status, income and level of education.…”

“…While some anti-vaccine sentiments date back to the 1800s -with some common themes, such as safety concerns, religious resistance against interfering with "God's plan" or mother nature, and libertarian resistance against mandates -the nature and scope of more recent episodes of vaccine hesitancy and refusal have new modes of spread and pertain to a greater number of vaccines and combinations of vaccines 7,8 .…”

Strategies to Overcome Vaccine Hesitancy: A Systematic Review

“…Similarly, multiple factors such as religious beliefs, geographic barriers, parent-provider relationship, perceived risk of adverse events following immunization (AEFI), lack of knowledge about vaccination, and disease risk perception give rise to vaccine hesitancy. [7] A survey conducted by WHO and UNICEF showed that vaccine hesitancy emerged a decade ago; [8] however, it has gained attention due to the current changing scientific, cultural, medico-legal, and media environments, despite all the efforts made to increase the awareness and increase the vaccines uptake. [9] The trend has been realized in several countries across the world including United Kingdom, United States, and India.…”

Parental Attitudes toward Vaccination in Turkey: A Face-to-Face Survey

“…1,10 To counteract this ominous trend, it is critical to monitor individuals who have concerns about vaccination and to develop appropriate strategies so that vaccine hesitancy would not transform into absolute refusal in the form of antivaccination movement. 11 The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of parents regarding vaccine hesitancy and refusal (V-HR) and to derive information that would help define and develop appropriate strategies to tackle this rising problem.…”