Improved parental attitudes and beliefs through stepwise perinatal vaccination education

Abstract

This study examined the effects of providing vaccination education during the perinatal period on Japanese parents' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about childhood vaccination. A cluster-randomized controlled-trial method was used on a sample of 160 pregnant women recruited from 9 obstetrical sites in Niigata, Japan. The treatment group received a stepwise interactive education intervention, while the control group received a general vaccination leaflet. Changes in parental attitudes toward and beliefs about infant vaccination were assessed on the child's one-month and 6-month birthdays using paper questionnaires. Of the initial 188 participants, 160 (90.4%) completed the final post-survey questionnaire. Scores on injunctive social norms (a morally neutral perception of the behavior of the majority) and descriptive social norms (a moral perception of what individuals should do) significantly increased in the treatment group (p = .02 and p = .01, respectively). There was a significant difference between the 2 groups over time in terms of perceived benefit (efficacy of available preventive actions) (p = .03), but no significant differences in perceived severity (seriousness of a disease outcome), perceived susceptibility (likelihood of getting a disease), perceived benefits, perceived behavioral control, or descriptive social norms between the groups at any time point or in the patterns of change over time (p > .31). Thus, stepwise perinatal vaccination education was found to positively influence maternal attitudes and beliefs about infant vaccination. This study suggests the importance of vaccination education during the perinatal period.

Analysis of the effects of individual- and community- level predictors on migrant children's primary immunization in Yiwu city, east China

“…Mother's high education background had been frequently considered as a positive determinant of the completeness of immunization in many countries, [17][18][19][20] because highly educated mothers can communicate with physicians more effectively and have a better understanding of the importance of vaccination which lead to better acceptance of vaccination. 21,22 This study had revealed that maternal ANC service utilization was significantly associated with reduced odds of vaccination and the completeness of primary immunization at both individual and community levels. This could be justified as women lacking prenatal care are less likely to be informed of the importance of immunization and other health promoting programs.…”

“…The length of time for continuously living in the surveyed areas was calculated through checking the date of the last immigration of the surveyed migrant children. The main reason for choosing children aged [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] months was that those children should have finished all primary vaccinations on the basis of the CEPI schedule, furthermore, they also had enough time to complete all the primary immunizations.…”

Does informing or educating parents about early childhood vaccination improve uptake?

“…Ten trials examined the effects of information or education about childhood vaccinations, delivered in a face‐to‐face format to parents or expectant parents . Half the studies involved 100–250 participants, and half involved more than 400 participants.…”

“…Five studies measured knowledge or understanding of vaccination at either 3 or 6 months post‐intervention, using customised knowledge scales, including two multi‐component intervention studies . Three studies measured a range of attitudes or beliefs about vaccination . The most comparable measure across studies was perceived severity of vaccine preventable diseases (measured in two studies, at 3 months post‐intervention) and beliefs about the necessity of vaccines (measured in one study, 6 months post‐intervention).…”

A systematic review of parental vaccine hesitancy and refusal in childhood vaccination

“…A variety of theoretical frameworks were used to inform the design of the questionnaires used in the studies. The most common was the Health Belief Model (HBM), which was explicitly stated as having been used to inform the questions in 22 (19.0%) studies (26,28,(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49), followed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which was used in 5 (4.3%) studies (50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55). Other studies that were adapted from existing questionnaires may have implicitly been based on these or other theoretical frameworks as a consequence of having adapted from other questionnaires but did not explicitly claim the theoretical framework as a basis for their questions.…”