Childhood Vaccine Attitudes and Information Sources Among Oregon Parents and Guardians

We sought to examine parent vaccine information sources and to understand vaccine beliefs and concerns of a representative sample of Oregon parents from an area where low vaccination levels occur. We hoped to understand how these beliefs affect pediatric vaccine uptake and to inform efforts to shift vaccine-hesitant habits toward a norm of full vaccination. Oregon still permits nonmedical exemptions. We passively recruited parents of children ages 0 to 13 years, then divided them into focus groups by stance-whether vaccine-accepting or -hesitant. Because of recruitment challenges, we supplemented focus group data from 33 participants with six individual parent interviews. In focus groups and interviews, we probed for vaccine information sources perceived as credible as well as perceptions about vaccines and their utility, benefit, and safety, using constructs of the health belief model. The information sources included medical providers, family, and peers or social networks. We found that vaccine beliefs are not dichotomous but fall along a continuum from full acceptance to full opposition. Most parents who participated inclined toward flexible vaccination scheduling. Another new finding was that most participants, regardless of vaccine stance, acknowledged the tension between social responsibility and individual choice regarding vaccination; vaccine-accepters supported social responsibility and vaccine-hesitant participants stressed individual choice. In addition, parents across the spectrum expressed skepticism about the reliability of social media.