Poor communication from healthcare providers and agencies can leave some parents hesitant to vaccinate their children or make them more likely to refuse the vaccination all together, according to research from the University of Haifa School of Public Health.
Researchers looked into the topic after a polio outbreak in 2013 in Israel. They used a survey, as well as analysis of discussions in blogs and elsewhere on the Internet, to find why parents hesitated to immunize their children under 10 years old with a bivalent oral polio vaccine to protect people who are not vaccinated against polio.
The study found parents who usually comply with vaccination programs hesitated or refused to vaccinate their children in this program. One third of parents who fell in that category reported being concerned about the vaccine's safety and being unconvinced by communicated information about the necessity of the vaccine.
The researchers recommend that in the future health agencies and providers should communicate facts, in science terms, to the public.