Aims

The success of the childhood immunisation programme depends on parental confidence in the efficacy of vaccines. Parental hesitancy because of lack of access to evidence based information alongside the misinformation available on social media contributes to the poor uptake of vaccinations. Reliance on herd immunity is compromised if increasing cohorts begin to decline vaccines. Combating misinformation and gaining an understanding of reasons for refusal and hesitancy behaviours enables the implementation of interventions to prevent declines. Our study attempted to understand reasons and personal characteristics influencing parental refusal in accepting immunisations.

Methods

Using a semi-structured interview, parents of children who had missed immunisation appointments were contacted. The parents were asked a series of open-ended questions about the reasons for their non-attendance to appointments.

Results

Out of the 47 patients contacted, 19 patients responded. Main reasons for vaccine refusal included misinformation, homoeopathy and religion. Parents expressed concerns over the vaccine components and the negative impacts vaccines had previously had on the child or other family members. Alongside this some parents expressed a concern over a link between autism and the MMR vaccine. A review of the records did not provide any valid information to support these claims which were more perceptual than factual. Furthermore, one parent expressed a lack of trust in the whole immunisation programme since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the roll out of vaccines.

Conclusion

Parental beliefs and hesitancy are key to the effectiveness of the childhood immunisation programme. Unless we can fully understand and counsel parents with the correct, evidence-based information we will not be able to change parental behaviours and reduce hesitancy surrounding vaccines. Social media and the plethora of information has a large contribution to the varied messages and information available to parents. Our study adds to existing information around the misinformation of vaccines. Public health programmes cannot combat misinformation and implement interventions unless there are more robust information campaigns.

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Abstract

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