Parental preferences for a mandatory vaccination scheme in England; a discrete choice experiment

TY - JOUR

T1 - Parental preferences for a mandatory vaccination scheme in England; a discrete choice experiment

AU - Smith, Louise E.

AU - Carter, Ben

N1 - Funding Information: Data collection was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants awarded to LS and BC (SRG1920\101118). The funding source had no role in analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This paper represents independent research part funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

PY - 2022/5

Y1 - 2022/5

N2 - BackgroundMandatory vaccination has been mooted to combat falling childhood vaccine uptake rates in England. This study investigated parental preferences for a mandatory vaccination scheme.MethodsDiscrete choice experiment. Six attributes were investigated: vaccine, child age group, incentive, penalty, ability to opt out, and compensation scheme. Mixed effects conditional logit regression models were used to investigate parental preferences and relative importance of attributes.FindingsParticipants were 1,001 parents of children aged 5 years and under in England (53% female; mean age=33·6 years, SD=7·1; 84% white). Parental preferences were mostly based on incentives (30·7% relative importance; 80·9% [95% confidence interval 76·3–85·0%] preference for parent and 74·8% [71·0–78·3%] for child incentive; reference: no incentive) and penalties (25·4% relative importance; 69·5% [65·7–73·1%] preference for schemes where unvaccinated children cannot attend school or day care and 67·6% [63·6–71·4%] for those withholding financial benefits for parents of unvaccinated children; reference: £450 fine). Parents also preferred schemes that: offered a compensation scheme (18·1% relative importance; 66·4% [62·7–69·8%] preference; reference: not offered), mandated vaccination in children aged 2 years (versus 5 years; 11·4% relative importance; 42·6% [39·4–45·9%] preference; reference: 2 years), mandated the 6-in-1 vaccine (10·5% relative importance; 58·2% [54·6–61·7%] preference; reference: MMR), and that offered only medical exemptions (versus medical and religious belief exemptions; 4·0% relative importance; 45·5% [41·1–50·0%] preference; reference: medical exemptions).InterpretationThese findings can inform policymakers’ decisions about how best to implement a mandatory childhood vaccination scheme in England.FundingData collection was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (SRG1920\101118).

AB - BackgroundMandatory vaccination has been mooted to combat falling childhood vaccine uptake rates in England. This study investigated parental preferences for a mandatory vaccination scheme.MethodsDiscrete choice experiment. Six attributes were investigated: vaccine, child age group, incentive, penalty, ability to opt out, and compensation scheme. Mixed effects conditional logit regression models were used to investigate parental preferences and relative importance of attributes.FindingsParticipants were 1,001 parents of children aged 5 years and under in England (53% female; mean age=33·6 years, SD=7·1; 84% white). Parental preferences were mostly based on incentives (30·7% relative importance; 80·9% [95% confidence interval 76·3–85·0%] preference for parent and 74·8% [71·0–78·3%] for child incentive; reference: no incentive) and penalties (25·4% relative importance; 69·5% [65·7–73·1%] preference for schemes where unvaccinated children cannot attend school or day care and 67·6% [63·6–71·4%] for those withholding financial benefits for parents of unvaccinated children; reference: £450 fine). Parents also preferred schemes that: offered a compensation scheme (18·1% relative importance; 66·4% [62·7–69·8%] preference; reference: not offered), mandated vaccination in children aged 2 years (versus 5 years; 11·4% relative importance; 42·6% [39·4–45·9%] preference; reference: 2 years), mandated the 6-in-1 vaccine (10·5% relative importance; 58·2% [54·6–61·7%] preference; reference: MMR), and that offered only medical exemptions (versus medical and religious belief exemptions; 4·0% relative importance; 45·5% [41·1–50·0%] preference; reference: medical exemptions).InterpretationThese findings can inform policymakers’ decisions about how best to implement a mandatory childhood vaccination scheme in England.FundingData collection was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (SRG1920\101118).

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129363369&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100359

DO - 10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100359

M3 - Article

SN - 2666-7762

VL - 16

JO - The Lancet Regional Health - Europe

JF - The Lancet Regional Health - Europe

M1 - 100359

ER -