What informs parents' decision-making about childhood vaccinations?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Communication
• Vaccinology

Background:

• Childhood vaccination decisions are complex.
• Effective decision-making requires access to and understanding of evidence.
• Parental involvement in vaccination choices is crucial for public health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify parents' decision-making processes regarding childhood vaccinations.
• To explore barriers and facilitators influencing parents' information-seeking behaviors.
• To understand the role of healthcare providers in parental vaccine decisions.

Main Methods:

• Grounded theory approach.
• Semi-structured interviews and focus groups with parents and public health nurses.
• Qualitative data analysis using incident-to-incident and axial coding.

Main Results:

• Parental confidence in vaccination and pre-existing decisions acted as barriers to information seeking.
• Perceived self-efficacy influenced parents' engagement with vaccination information.
• Public health nurses were a primary information source, but their communication style sometimes led to parental uncertainty.
• Inadequate information contributed to parental low confidence and ambiguity regarding rights and responsibilities.

Conclusions:

• Public health nurse communication should be balanced, presenting benefits and harms without facilitating a specific choice.
• Shared decision-making tools, like checklists, can improve parental engagement.
• Guidelines for trustworthy online resources are needed to support informed vaccination decisions.