Background: Few published studies have examined how different health-risk communication message strategies can affect parents' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (KABs) towards childhood immunization recommendations. Recent focus group research, surveys, and materials from advocacy organizations suggests many parents hold significant misperceptions about vaccine safety and the need for childhood immunizations. Increased understanding of how immunizations "work," along with efforts to correct misperceptions have been considered key to strengthening the public's trust in immunization recommendations and to ensuring high childhood immunization rates.
Congressionally-mandated Vaccine Information Statements (VIS) are often the primary method of conveying benefits and risk information to parents. This research examines the effects of different benefit-risk communication approaches that could be incorporated into the VIS format or vaccine education materials.
Objectives: Evaluate two approaches to presenting vaccine benefit-risk information on parents' KAB toward childhood immunizations.
Method: First-time parents with children under the age of two will be assigned to treatment and control groups from a population-based sample and administered a web-based survey. The treatment group will read two modified VIS on the Hepatitis B vaccine that incorporate the variables of "personal relevance" or "credibility" of vaccines.
Results: Results will highlight health risk-communication lessons learned when promoting hepatitis B vaccines to pre-school children and how these lessons may apply to other recommended childhood immunizations.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe major message strategies and content factors that can affect parents' KAB towards vaccine education materials; 2. Describe how those factors can be used to design and provide vaccine benefit-risk information.
Keywords: Evaluation, Immunizations
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.