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Barriers and Facilitators of Childhood Flu Vaccination: The Views of Parents in North East England

Lookup NU author(s): Tim Price, Emerita Professor Elaine McCollORCiD, Dr Shelina Visram

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to complete a descriptive qualitative investigation of parents’ perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to flu vaccination for pre-school children. Subject and Method: Participants were recruited using various techniques to maximize sample variation. Twelve participants took part in a semi-structured interview via Zoom. Transcripts were coded using Nvivo 12 and data were thematically analyzed using the COM-B model of health behavior change. Results: Participants whose children were not vaccinated against flu nonetheless generally held favourable views of vaccination and reported low concern about side-effects. Barriers involved a combination of internal and external factors, mainly a lack of convenient access to vaccination opportunities and flu vaccination being a low priority for busy parents. Conclusion: The results suggest that several factors known to influence other vaccination behaviors, such as socio-economic status and past vaccine uptake, may also facilitate or reduce uptake of the flu vaccine in this population. Inconvenient vaccination opportunities and a lack of awareness of the need to vaccinate are major barriers to uptake for some parents. The finding that belief that flu vaccination is a civic responsibility is a new contribution to the literature.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Price T, McColl E, Visram S

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Public Health

Year: 2022

Pages: Epub ahead of print

Online publication date: 18/02/2022

Acceptance date: 30/01/2022

Date deposited: 03/03/2022

ISSN (print): 2198-1833

ISSN (electronic): 1613-2238

Publisher: Springer Nature

URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-022-01695-2

DOI: 10.1007/s10389-022-01695-2


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