To close the childhood immunization gap, we need a richer understanding of parents' decision-making

Abstract

Vaccination is widely acknowledged as one of the most successful public health interventions globally and in most high-income countries childhood vaccination coverage rates are moderately high Yet in many instances immunisation rates remain below aspirational targets and have shown only modest progress toward those targets in recent years despite concerted efforts to improve uptake In part coverage rates reflect individual parents vaccination attitudes and decisions and because vaccination decision-making is complex and context-specific it remains challenging at individual and community levels to assist parents to make positive decisions Consequently in the search for opportunities to improve immunisation coverage there has been a renewed research focus on parents decision-making This review provides an overview of the literature surrounding parents vaccination decision-making offering suggestions for where efforts to increase vaccination coverage should be targeted and identifying areas for further research Keywords attitudes beliefs decision-making hesitant parents immunisation parents preventative behavior vaccination