Journal Article

Parental preferences for rotavirus vaccination in young children: A discrete choice experiment

Bruijning-Verhagen, Patricia C.J., Smit, Henriette A., Wit, G. Ardine de, Veldwijk, Jorien, Lambooij, Mattijs S.

2014

Overview

•Parental preferences and expected coverage may guide the introduction of rotavirus vaccines.•Vaccination decisions of parents were mostly driven by vaccine related out-of-pocket costs.•Highest coverage is expected for a vaccine with high effectiveness and protection duration.•Highest coverage can only be realized if the vaccine is implemented within the current NIP. This study aimed to identify characteristics that affect parental decisions about rotavirus vaccination, to determine the relative importance of those characteristics and subsequently to estimate vaccination coverage for different implementation strategies. A Discrete choice experiment (DCE) questionnaire was sent to the parents of 1250 newborns aged 6 weeks (response rate 37.3%). Mixed-logit models were used to estimate the relative importance of the five included rotavirus vaccine and implementation characteristics; vaccine effectiveness, frequency of severe side effects, protection duration, the healthcare facility that administrates vaccination and out-of-pocket costs. Based on the utility functions of the mixed-logit model, the potential vaccination coverage was estimated for different vaccine scenarios and implementation strategies. All characteristics, except for healthcare facility that administrates vaccination, influenced parental willingness to vaccinate their newborn against rotavirus. Parents were willing to trade 20.2 percentage points vaccine effectiveness for the lowest frequency of severe side effects (i.e., 1 in 1,000,000) or 20.8 percentage points for a higher protection duration. Potential vaccination coverage ranged between 22.7 and 86.2%, depending on vaccine scenario (i.e., vaccine effectiveness and protection duration) and implementation strategy (i.e., out-of-pocket costs and healthcare facility that administrates vaccination). When deciding about vaccination against rotavirus, parents are mostly driven by the out-of-pocket costs, vaccine effectiveness, protection duration, and frequency of severe side effects. The highest vaccination coverage is expected for a vaccine with high effectiveness and protection duration that is implemented within the current National Immunization Program context. Implementation of the same rotavirus vaccine in the free market will result in lowest coverage.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Adult / adverse effects / Allergy and Immunology / Applied microbiology / Biological and medical sciences / children / Children & youth / Choice Behavior / Discrete choice experiments / Female / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Health care / health care costs / Health Expenditures / Humans / Immunization / Infant / Infant, Newborn / Male / market economy / Microbiology / Miscellaneous / Models, Statistical / neonates / Netherlands / Parents / Patient Preference / Preferences / questionnaires / Rotavirus / Rotavirus Infections - prevention & control / Rotavirus Vaccines - adverse effects / Rotavirus Vaccines - economics / Rotavirus Vaccines - therapeutic use / Side effects / Studies / Surveys and Questionnaires / utility functions / Vaccination / Vaccination - economics / Vaccination coverage / Vaccine / Vaccines / Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies (general aspects) / Virology