Public Health Messages to Address Vaccine Hesitancy

• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03395106
• Recruitment Status: Completed
• First Posted: January 10, 2018
• Last Update Posted: October 10, 2019
• Sponsor: University of Manitoba
• Collaborator: Canadian Immunization Research Network
• Information provided by (Responsible Party): University of Manitoba

Study Description

Brief Summary:

Views on vaccines range from those who are strongly supportive to those who are stridently opposed and will not budge from identity-based core beliefs about vaccines. In between these poles are numerous others who can delay, be reluctant (but still accept), or refuse/accept some vaccines for their children but not others. It is for these vaccine-hesitant parents that constitute the 'middle ground' of this spectrum where the most immediate and productive gains can be made towards enhancing vaccination acceptance and improving uptake. However, navigating this noisy communications environment is difficult, given the array of confusing and conflicting information available from multiple and competing sources. To date, there is no consensus on how best to use communication to respond to vaccine hesitancy. Building on two Canada-wide surveys of parents, the goal of this research is to identify which communication strategies show the greatest impact in reducing parental vaccine hesitancy and improving vaccination intentions.

The specific objectives are to:

1. Develop and pre-test four variations of news media stories that vary by source (parent versus physician) and content (intuitive versus deliberative);
2. Examine the impact of vaccine hesitant parents' exposure to vaccine communications that vary in source (parent versus physician) and content (intuitive versus deliberative) on primary (vaccine hesitant attitudes) and secondary (vaccine intentions) outcomes; and
3. Explore which media story variation may be more effective in improving vaccination attitudes and intentions for different parental decision-making styles (deliberative versus intuitive).

Condition or disease	Intervention/treatment	Phase
Vaccine Hesitancy	Behavioral: Parent source; Behavioral: Doctor source; Behavioral: Deliberative content; Behavioral: Intuitive content	Not Applicable

Study Design

• Study Type: Interventional (Clinical Trial)
• Actual Enrollment: 883 participants
• Allocation: Randomized
• Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
• Intervention Model Description: Factorial design 2x2
• Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
• Masking Description: Statisticians completing the analysis of the primary outcome will be blinded.
• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Official Title: Developing and Evaluating Public Health Messages to Address Vaccine Hesitancy
• Actual Study Start Date: July 9, 2018
• Actual Primary Completion Date: November 9, 2018
• Actual Study Completion Date: November 9, 2018

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/treatment
Experimental: Parent source + intuitive story content	Behavioral: Parent source; Having a parent feature prominently in a news story; Behavioral: Intuitive content; News story content focuses on the consequences of not vaccinating (including vaccine preventable diseases) and the decisional regret.
Experimental: Doctor source + intuitive story content	Behavioral: Doctor source; Having a doctor feature prominently in a news story; Behavioral: Intuitive content; News story content focuses on the consequences of not vaccinating (including vaccine preventable diseases) and the decisional regret.
Experimental: Parent source + deliberative content	Behavioral: Parent source; Having a parent feature prominently in a news story; Behavioral: Deliberative content; News story content includes process of weighing the risks/benefits of vaccinating, the importance of vaccines for community protection, and concludes with a recommendation to vaccinate.
Experimental: Doctor source + deliberative content	Behavioral: Doctor source; Having a doctor feature prominently in a news story; Behavioral: Deliberative content; News story content includes process of weighing the risks/benefits of vaccinating, the importance of vaccines for community protection, and concludes with a recommendation to vaccinate.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures :

1. Vaccine Hesitancy [ Time Frame: Change in baseline measured up to 1 day after content delivery ]
   Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV). The PACV is a validated 15 question survey on vaccine hesitancy.

Secondary Outcome Measures :

1. Intention to Vaccinate [ Time Frame: Change in baseline measured up to 1 day after content delivery ]
   intention to vaccinate item using a 5 point likert scale ranging from very unlikely to vaccinate to very likely to vaccinate, and see if there is a one-response shift in participant intentions among vaccine hesitant parents.

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Sexes Eligible for Study: All
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Parents over 18 living in Canada with a YOUNGEST child is less than 24 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Parents who have a YOUNGEST child older than 24 months
• A parent who is pregnant, before the first trimester is complete

Contacts and Locations

Locations

Canada, Manitoba

University of Manitoba

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, R2M 3Y9

Sponsors and Collaborators

University of Manitoba

Canadian Immunization Research Network

Investigators

• Principal Investigator: Michelle Driedger, PhD; University of Manitoba

More Information

Publications:

Pachur T, Spaar, M. Domain-specific preferences for intuition and deliberation in decision making. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. 4:303-311, 2015.

Opel DJ, Taylor JA, Zhou C, Catz S, Myaing M, Mangione-Smith R. The relationship between parent attitudes about childhood vaccines survey scores and future child immunization status: a validation study. JAMA Pediatr. 2013 Nov;167(11):1065-71. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.2483.

• Responsible Party: University of Manitoba
• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03395106
• Other Study ID Numbers: H2016:390
• First Posted: January 10, 2018
• Last Update Posted: October 10, 2019
• Last Verified: October 2019

Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:

• Plan to Share IPD: Undecided

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product: No

Keywords provided by University of Manitoba:

vaccine; public health