AUTHOR=Lenart Christian , Prager Marlene , Sachs Marlene , Steininger Christoph , Fernandes Charlene , Thannesberger Jakob 

TITLE=Tackling Vaccine Hesitancy and Increasing Vaccine Willingness Among Parents of Unvaccinated Children in Austria

JOURNAL=International Journal of Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 68 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.ssph-journal.org/journals/international-journal-of-public-health/articles/10.3389/ijph.2023.1606042

DOI=10.3389/ijph.2023.1606042

ISSN=1661-8564

ABSTRACT=In the autumn of 2021, there was a surge of COVID-19 infections in Austria, and vaccination coverage within the country stagnated at a below-average level compared to the rest of Europe. Surveys showed that both children and adolescents were the main drivers of the rising infection rates and that vaccination numbers were particularly low in this age group. This was due to widespread vaccination skepticism and hesitancy among parents of unvaccinated children and adolescents.
Here, we describe a novel intervention concept that allowed us to efficiently tackle vaccine hesitancy. We designed an intervention series based on online face-to-face seminars. Each seminar included an anonymous online questionnaire for internal quality control, with which we assessed the motives of vaccine hesitancy.
More than 580 people participated in the seminar series. We found that concerns about the side effects of the vaccine were the predominant motive of vaccination hesitancy among the study population. Distrust towards the pharmaceutical industry, the government, or feelings of restriction from personal freedom was associated with below-average vaccination willingness. Overall, the intervention could successfully increase the median vaccination willingness.