An online experiment of NHS information framing on mothers’ vaccination intention of children against COVID-19

Van Hoecke, Audrey L. and Sanders, Jet G. (2022) An online experiment of NHS information framing on mothers’ vaccination intention of children against COVID-19. Vaccines, 10 (5). ISSN 2076-393X

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Abstract

Children under the age of 5, will likely all be offered vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 soon. Parental concerns over vaccination of children are long standing and could impede the success of a vaccination campaign. In the UK, a trusted source to inform vaccination choices is the NHS website. Here we used a randomized controlled experiment of framing effects in NHS information content for COVID-19 and flu with 550 mothers under the age of 5. We compared both vaccination offers following two commonly used frames in vaccination informational campaigns: alerting to the risks of no vaccination for the child itself vs. those in their community. We find that vaccination intention was twice as high when risks to the child are emphasized, relative to risks to the community. Exploratory analyses suggest that these effects may differ between white and non-white mothers. Whilst communication directed at adult vaccination against COVID-19 generally focuses on risks of infecting others, communication about vaccination of children may benefit from emphasizing risks to the children themselves. This pattern is in line with flu vaccination research from pre-COVID-19 times.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.mdpi.com/journal/vaccines
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Authors
Divisions:	Psychological and Behavioural Science
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Date Deposited:	01 Jun 2022 16:09
Last Modified:	23 Nov 2024 19:27
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/115274

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