First name
Saad
Middle name
B
Last name
Omer

Title

Vaccine exemption requirements and parental vaccine attitudes: an online experiment.

Year of Publication

2020

Number of Pages

2620-2625

Date Published

2020 03 04

ISSN Number

1873-2518

Abstract

<p>Increases in vaccine hesitancy and vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks have focused attention on state laws governing school-entry vaccine mandates and the allowable exemptions (medical and nonmedical) from those mandates. There is substantial variation in the type of exemptions available in each state, and states with more rigorous or burdensome exemption requirements generally have lower exemption rates. States have little evidence, however, about how vaccine-hesitant parents respond to different requirements. Despite recent efforts to formulate "model legislation" templates for states to follow, policy evidence about optimal exemption regimes is limited to observational studies in states that have changed exemption laws. We conducted two online experiments to explore how parental attitudes and intentions responded to different school-entry vaccine mandate exemption requirements. We randomly assigned online participants to one of four hypothetical vaccine exemption application scenarios: parental signature only, a checklist of vaccines for which an exemption is requested, a lengthy (10-30+ min) video-based vaccine education module, and a requirement to write a statement justifying the exemption. Among parents with high vaccine hesitancy, a required vaccine education module led to significant decreases in vaccine hesitancy, while checklist and justification requirements increased vaccine hesitancy slightly. Among parents with low vaccine hesitancy, we observed a potential backfire effect when parents were required to write a justification statement. Our findings warrant replication in a larger, fully-powered trial to accelerate knowledge about how parents across the vaccine hesitancy spectrum respond to exemption regimes.</p>

DOI

10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.01.035

Alternate Title

Vaccine

PMID

32057577

Title

A 6-month-old with vaccine-hesitant parents.

Year of Publication

2014

Number of Pages

526-30

Date Published

2014 Mar

ISSN Number

1098-4275

Abstract

<p>Many primary care pediatricians find vaccine hesitancy to be one of the most frustrating situations that they face. Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children implicitly call into question an intervention that most pediatricians see as one of the safest and most effective health care interventions of all time. Many pediatricians respond by refusing to care for children whose parents refuse vaccines, and some may consider that the parent's refusal warrants referral to child protective services. We present a case in which a pediatrician faces this dilemma, with responses from pediatricians in academia and private practice.</p>

DOI

10.1542/peds.2013-2723

Alternate Title

Pediatrics

PMID

24515506

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