Abstract:

Background: Vaccine hesitancy remains a public health issue, given the influence of parental belief, thoughts, feelings and perception on childhood vaccination. We assessed the process and impact of education intervention public health professionals conducted to eliminate the risks due to parental childhood vaccine indecisions behaviors.

Methods: We used cross-sectional research method with behavioral theories-informed tool to assess the process and impact of efforts on parental childhood vaccination hesitancy in our sample. Chi square statistic and logistic regression model were used to characterize the sample and test the study related hypotheses respectively.

Results: The overall response rate for the survey was 80% (359 of 450). Sixty-three percent of the participants were female, 62% were employed full time, and 77% were educated above secondary school level. Ninety-five percent of the 450 participants cast their votes of confidence for the safety and protectiveness of childhood vaccines. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, study participants with positive response to TV as a good source of information were 4 times as likely to perceive childhood immunization risks judged against those with negative response, adjusted prevalence odds ratio (APOR) = 4.35, 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) = 0.10 – 0.74.

Conclusions: The source of information significantly influenced vaccine hesitancy in our sample. These data is suggestive of the need for public health education via mass media in reducing vaccine hesitancy.

Keywords: Childhood immunization, parental vaccine hesitancy; risk communications; behavior change; vaccine acceptance

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