Increasing confidence for pediatric COVID-19 and influenza vaccines using messages affirming parental autonomy: A randomized online experiment.

OBJECTIVES

To test the effects of autonomy-affirming pediatric vaccine messages for U.S. parents on overall vaccine confidence and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 and flu while examining potential moderation effects of political ideology.

METHODS

We conducted an online randomized messaging experiment with 1718 parents, balanced across political ideology (31 % conservative, 37 % moderate, 31 % liberal). We compared four types of vaccine messages: 2 (autonomy-confirming vs authoritarian tone) x 2 (COVID-19 or flu). Parents viewed three messages within a single condition and rated their overall vaccine confidence and intentions to vaccinate their children.

RESULTS

Adjusted for covariates, we found significant interactions between autonomy-confirming language and ideology. Conservative parents who saw COVID-19 messages increased vaccine confidence in response to autonomy-confirming messages, compared to both moderate and liberal parents. For flu messages, we found that autonomy-confirming messages increased confidence and intention to vaccinate for conservative parents only.

DISCUSSION: Messages promoting pediatric COVID-19 and flu vaccination were generally more effective at increasing overall confidence toward vaccines for conservative parents when using autonomy-confirming language.

CONCLUSIONS

Pediatric vaccinations are politicalized in the United States, and messaging strategies targeting parents must consider this. Public health agencies serving conservative parents can use autonomy-confirming messaging to positively influence parents' confidence in giving their children vaccines.