Its Complicated: The 2014-2015 U.S. Measles Outbreak and Parents Vaccination Beliefs Confidence and Intentions.

Friday, 8th of June 2018

Risk Anal. 2018 Jun 6. doi: 10.1111/risa.13120. [Epub ahead of print]

Its Complicated: The 2014-2015 U.S. Measles Outbreak and Parents Vaccination Beliefs Confidence and Intentions.

Cacciatore MA¹ Nowak GJ¹ Evans NJ¹.

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Abstract

While it seems intuitive that highly visible vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks should impact perceptions of disease risk and facilitate vaccination few empirical studies exist to confirm or dispel these beliefs. This study investigates the impact of the 2014-2015 Disneyland measles outbreak on parents vaccination attitudes and future vaccination intentions. The analysis relies on a pair of public opinion surveys of American parents with at least one child under the age of six (N = 1000 across each survey). Controlling for basic demographics we found higher levels of reported confidence in the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccinations in our follow-up data collection. However this confidence was also accompanied by elevated levels of concern toward childhood vaccines among American parents. We then examined how different subgroups in the population scored on these measures before and after the outbreak. We found that parents with high levels of interest in the topic of vaccines and a child who is not fully upto date with the recommended vaccination schedule reported more supportive attitudes toward vaccines. However future intentions to follow the recommended vaccination schedule were not positively impacted by the outbreak. Possible explanations for these results and implications for vaccination outreach are discussed.