Associations between parental generative artificial intelligence health-advice use and child vaccination uptake in Japan: an exploratory cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Parents increasingly use generative artificial intelligence (AI) for health information, but evidence on parental AI use and childhood vaccination is limited. We examined exploratory associations between regular parental AI health-advice use and childhood vaccination in Japan.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study analyzed 2025 nationwide survey data from children aged 1 to 17 years and parents, with a linked 2023-2025 sub-analysis. The exposure was regular parental use of generative AI for health advice at least a few times per month. Outcomes were age-appropriate measles-rubella (MR) vaccination and any mumps, influenza, or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. Modified Poisson regression estimated adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) with parent-level clustering and covariates.

RESULTS

Among 8282 children and 5170 parents, 1278 (15.4%) had regular AI health-advice users as parents. AI use was not associated with age-appropriate MR vaccination (aPR 1.02; 95% CI 0.97-1.09), but was associated with three vaccines. The adjusted rates were 76.6 versus 72.7% (aPR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01-1.10) for mumps, 56.7% versus 49.0% (aPR 1.16, 95% CI 1.08-1.24) for influenza, 40.6% versus 30.9% (aPR 1.31, 95% CI 1.19-1.45) for COVID-19. The COVID-19 association was strongest among parents younger than 30 years (aPR 2.58; 95% CI 1.90-3.50; P for interaction < 0.001). In the linked sub-analysis, these associations persisted after adjustment for an available 2023 household-level prior vaccination marker and attitudes.

CONCLUSIONS

Regular parental use of generative AI for health advice was associated with mumps, influenza, and COVID-19 vaccination, but not with age-appropriate MR vaccination. These exploratory, cross-sectional findings are observational associations. They may reflect digital health engagement, health information seeking, socioeconomic differences, or favorable attitudes, rather than vaccine-specific AI advice.