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Parental willingness to enter a child in a controlled vaccine trial
J M Langley1, S A Halperin, E L Mills
1Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS.
Insights
Parents enroll children in vaccine trials for altruistic reasons and to aid medical knowledge. Concerns about extra immunizations and blood draws deter participation in pertussis vaccine studies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric clinical research
- Vaccinology
- Public health
Background:
- Understanding parental motivations is crucial for successful clinical trial recruitment.
- Parental consent for pediatric vaccine trials is influenced by various factors, including perceived risks and benefits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the key factors influencing parental decisions to enroll or not enroll their children in randomized, controlled pertussis vaccine trials.
- To explore parental attitudes towards medical research and their information sources regarding vaccines.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional survey was conducted with parents of 2-month-old infants at two primary care physician offices.
- Parents who had decided to enroll (221) or not enroll (208) their child in pertussis vaccine trials were surveyed.
- Data collected included reasons for enrollment decisions, attitudes toward research, and information sources about pertussis.
Main Results:
- Enrollment rates varied by site (68% and 43%).
- Primary reasons for non-enrollment included concerns about extra immunizations and blood procurement.
- Motivations for enrollment centered on contributing to medical knowledge, helping others, and physician recommendation.
- Enrollees primarily received information from health professionals, not the media.
Conclusions:
- Altruistic motivations and a desire to advance medical knowledge drive parental enrollment in vaccine trials.
- Concerns about study procedures, particularly painful ones, are significant barriers to participation.
- Parental decisions are not significantly swayed by negative media coverage of vaccine side effects.
Objective:
To determine the reasons that motivate parents to enrol or not enrol their child in a randomized, controlled vaccine trial.
Design:
Cross-sectional survey.
Setting:
Offices of primary care physicians in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and Montreal, Quebec.
Participants:
At the 2 sites, parents of 2-month-old infants at their first immunization visit who had decided to enrol (221) or not enrol (208) their child in 2 randomized pertussis vaccine trials.
Outcome Measures:
Rates of enrolment in vaccine trials; attitudes about medical research; sources of information about pertussis.
Results:
Enrolment rates were 68% and 43% at the 2 sites. All parents agreed to answer questions about their decision to enrol or not enrol their child. The most common concerns resulting in nonenrolment were extra immunization 54% (26/48) and blood procurement 42% (20/48). Parents who did enrol their children were motivated to participate by the desire to contribute to medical knowledge (77% [170/221]), the desire to help others (48% [106/221]) and by the participation of their family physician (54% [120/221]). The enrollees' major sources of information about pertussis was health professionals or study personnel rather than the media.
Conclusions:
Altruistic reasons motivate parents' decision to enrol a child in a randomized, controlled vaccine trial. Nonparticipating parents seem most concerned about painful procedures in the study. Parents' decisions regarding participation do not appear to be affected by adverse media attention regarding the purported adverse sequelae of pertussis vaccines.