Development of a survey to identify vaccine-hesitant parents: the parent attitudes about childhood vaccines survey.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a survey to accurately assess parental vaccine hesitancy. RESULTS: The initial survey contained 17 items in four content domains: (1) immunization behavior; (2) beliefs about vaccine safety and efficacy; (3) attitudes about vaccine mandates and exemptions; and (4) trust. Focus group data yielded an additional 10 survey items. Expert review of the survey resulted in the deletion of nine of 27 items and revisions to 11 of the remaining 18 survey items. Parent pretesting resulted in the deletion of one item, the addition of one item, the revision of four items, and formatting changes to enhance usability. The final survey contains 18 items in the original four content domains. METHODS: An iterative process was used to develop the survey. First, we reviewed previous studies and surveys on parental health beliefs regarding vaccination to develop content domains and draft initial survey items. Focus groups of parents and pediatricians generated additional themes and survey items. Six immunization experts reviewed the items in the resulting draft survey and ranked them on a 1-5 scale for significance in identifying vaccine-hesitant parents (5 indicative of a highly significant item). The lowest third of ranked items were dropped. The revised survey was pretested with 25 parents to assess face validity, usability and item understandability. CONCLUSIONS: The Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines survey was constructed using qualitative methodology to identify vaccine-hesitant parents and has content and face validity. Further psychometric testing is needed.

Characterizing providers' immunization communication practices during health supervision visits with vaccine-hesitant parents: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the feasibility of using direct observation of provider-parent immunization discussions and to characterize provider communication practices with vaccine-hesitant parents. METHODS: Over a 6 month period in 2010, we videotaped immunization discussions between pediatric providers and vaccine-hesitant parents during health supervision visits involving children 2-15 months old (N=24) in the Seattle area, Washington, USA. Videotapes were analyzed using the qualitative method of conversation analysis. RESULTS: We approached 96 parents seen by 9 different providers. Of those who were eligible (N=56), we enrolled 43% (N=24). Four videotaped visits were excluded from analysis for failure to obtain parental HIPAA authorization. Of the remaining 20 visits, there were ≥2 visits each that involved children aged 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 15 months, and all videotaped visits contained at least a brief immunization discussion. We identified 6 communication practices and several behavior types within each practice relevant to immunization: Practice 1, providers' initiations of the topic of vaccination; Types: participatory or presumptive format; Practice 2, parents' responses to providers' topic initiations; Types: strong or weak acceptance or resistance; Practice 3, providers' follow-ups to parent's responses; Types: no, immediate, or delayed pursuit; Practice 4, parents' vaccine-related questions or statements; Types: fact- or concern-based; Practice 5, providers' explicit solicitations of parent's questions/concerns; Types: designed to discourage or encourage discussion; and Practice 6, parents' responses to providers' solicitations of questions/concerns; Types: no question or fact- or concern-based inquiry. CONCLUSION: Direct observation of immunization discussions in the primary care pediatric setting is feasible and yields insight into several provider-parent immunization communication practices that are worthy of further study to determine which are effective at improving parental acceptance of immunization.