Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VAX-TRUST (Addressing vaccine hesitancy in Europe)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-03-01 al 2022-08-31
Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Europe (VAX-TRUST) is a 3-year research project committed to improving the understanding of vaccine hesitancy among parents and healthcare professionals around Europe. We study vaccine hesitancy as a broad societal phenomenon with the primary aim of advancing the experience of healthcare professionals and patients in encountering the topic of vaccination. The approach of the project is rooted in social science and public health.
In VAX-TRUST, vaccine hesitancy refers to a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite the availability of vaccination services. Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context-specific, varying across time, place, and vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy has strong significance for vaccine coverage and occurrence of vaccine-preventable diseases, especially in contexts where vaccines are widely and easily available as in European countries. Vaccine hesitancy is an issue for healthcare professionals who meet challenges in building trust relationships with their patients.
Based on previous knowledge of the topic as well as data collection in the project, the overall objective of the consortium is to provide a deeper understanding of vaccine hesitancy and develop evidence-based interventions that would aid healthcare professionals in the challenges they might be facing concerning the phenomenon. In addition, the project draws recommendations on vaccine hesitancy for policymakers, healthcare professionals, and researchers as well as other stakeholders in Europe.
VAX-TRUST was officially kick-started on the 1st of March 2021 and is, at the time of this reporting, halfway through. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 965280. Our consortium consists of 10 partner organisations in seven European countries. The project is carried out in Finland, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The project is coordinated by Tampere University, Finland.
In VAX-TRUST, vaccine hesitancy refers to a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite the availability of vaccination services. Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context-specific, varying across time, place, and vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy has strong significance for vaccine coverage and occurrence of vaccine-preventable diseases, especially in contexts where vaccines are widely and easily available as in European countries. Vaccine hesitancy is an issue for healthcare professionals who meet challenges in building trust relationships with their patients.
Based on previous knowledge of the topic as well as data collection in the project, the overall objective of the consortium is to provide a deeper understanding of vaccine hesitancy and develop evidence-based interventions that would aid healthcare professionals in the challenges they might be facing concerning the phenomenon. In addition, the project draws recommendations on vaccine hesitancy for policymakers, healthcare professionals, and researchers as well as other stakeholders in Europe.
VAX-TRUST was officially kick-started on the 1st of March 2021 and is, at the time of this reporting, halfway through. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 965280. Our consortium consists of 10 partner organisations in seven European countries. The project is carried out in Finland, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The project is coordinated by Tampere University, Finland.
The VAX-TRUST project is composed of nine Work Packages (WPs) for which the partners have worked intensively during the past 18 months of the project. The consortium has planned and introduced ethics measures to the data collection as well as future interventions, evaluation, and recommendations (WP1). The project executed an encompassing situation analysis of vaccine hesitancy in the VAX-TRUST Target Regions (WP2), including a literature review of existing studies. The empirical results of survey data used (Special Eurobarometer 488 combined with information retrieved from various data sources) particularly revealed that healthcare corruption and societal trust were the most important macro-level correlates of people’s attitudes toward vaccines. The study highlighted significant interactions at the individual level between (1) gender and educational attainment, and (2) educational attainment and number of children for perceptions of vaccine importance. In addition, various cross-level interaction effects were found for both perceptions of vaccine effectiveness and vaccine importance. In all, the results of WP2 emphasise the importance of taking an intersectional approach to studying vaccine hesitancy in Europe.
To reconstruct the discourses surrounding vaccination, the VAX-TRUST consortium collected media coverage related to vaccination and analysed the data (WP3). The results demonstrate that people making decisions on taking or not taking vaccines are exposed to various vaccine discourses in their societies and beyond. This exposition can be intended (when people search for information) or not (accidental exposition). People use different sources that coproduce the controversy around vaccines. The process of production and distribution of vaccines is complex and related to political, financial, technological, and scientific issues.
After concluding WP3, the VAX-TRUST partners commenced the detailed examination of vaccine hesitancy by conducting ethnographic data collection and analysis of vaccine hesitancy in the Target Regions (WP4). The analysis included ethnographic observations of the interaction between healthcare professionals and parents, as well as interviews with both groups. The national analyses confirm the centrality of the relationship between parents and healthcare professionals in nurturing trust in vaccinations and the ubiquity of the sources of this trust. This analysis resulted in empirically rich up-to-date data and knowledge in each regional context.
WPs 5, 6 and 7 are in the planning face and will be completed in the second half of the project.
Ever since the beginning of the project, the VAX-TRUST consortium has implemented several communication, dissemination, and exploitation measures (WP8). A highlight to specify is the project website (https://vax-trust.eu/) which acts as the central communication forum of project activities for the general public. To provide a strong foundation for the project, the Coordinator has set up and maintained necessary consortium governance, cooperation and organisational mechanisms (WP9). These assure that the project activities are monitored and carried out in a timely and high-quality manner (WP9).
To reconstruct the discourses surrounding vaccination, the VAX-TRUST consortium collected media coverage related to vaccination and analysed the data (WP3). The results demonstrate that people making decisions on taking or not taking vaccines are exposed to various vaccine discourses in their societies and beyond. This exposition can be intended (when people search for information) or not (accidental exposition). People use different sources that coproduce the controversy around vaccines. The process of production and distribution of vaccines is complex and related to political, financial, technological, and scientific issues.
After concluding WP3, the VAX-TRUST partners commenced the detailed examination of vaccine hesitancy by conducting ethnographic data collection and analysis of vaccine hesitancy in the Target Regions (WP4). The analysis included ethnographic observations of the interaction between healthcare professionals and parents, as well as interviews with both groups. The national analyses confirm the centrality of the relationship between parents and healthcare professionals in nurturing trust in vaccinations and the ubiquity of the sources of this trust. This analysis resulted in empirically rich up-to-date data and knowledge in each regional context.
WPs 5, 6 and 7 are in the planning face and will be completed in the second half of the project.
Ever since the beginning of the project, the VAX-TRUST consortium has implemented several communication, dissemination, and exploitation measures (WP8). A highlight to specify is the project website (https://vax-trust.eu/) which acts as the central communication forum of project activities for the general public. To provide a strong foundation for the project, the Coordinator has set up and maintained necessary consortium governance, cooperation and organisational mechanisms (WP9). These assure that the project activities are monitored and carried out in a timely and high-quality manner (WP9).
VAX-TRUST aims, through social science and public health research, at providing a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy among parents and healthcare professionals. We have conducted comprehensive ethnographic research which has resulted in rich empirical data and analysis on the subject.
Based on the quantitative and qualitative social scientific evidence, the VAX-TRUST consortium develops interventions to strengthen healthcare professionals’ expertise on vaccine hesitancy. The objective here will be to sensitize healthcare professionals towards the perspective of hesitant parents and understand such a perspective in the context of factors and patterns underlying hesitancy. For the future, the impact is in better equipped future professionals to meet societal challenges related to expert knowledge, expertise, and evidence-based recommendations, of which vaccine hesitancy is one.
At the moment in Europe, there are few tested and evaluated interventions addressing vaccine hesitancy. VAX-TRUST will produce interventions for healthcare professionals who encounter vaccine hesitancy in their everyday work. Moreover, the consortium will design a new kind of evaluation process for interventions and training of evaluators in the seven research countries. The project will develop evidence-based recommendations to the European, national and regional public health authorities in collaboration with stakeholders.
Finally, together with other EU projects, VAX-TRUST will disseminate and communicate its findings to EU-level healthcare officials, healthcare authorities and policymakers, different healthcare actors, professionals, parents and the broader public as well as researchers of different disciplines.
Based on the quantitative and qualitative social scientific evidence, the VAX-TRUST consortium develops interventions to strengthen healthcare professionals’ expertise on vaccine hesitancy. The objective here will be to sensitize healthcare professionals towards the perspective of hesitant parents and understand such a perspective in the context of factors and patterns underlying hesitancy. For the future, the impact is in better equipped future professionals to meet societal challenges related to expert knowledge, expertise, and evidence-based recommendations, of which vaccine hesitancy is one.
At the moment in Europe, there are few tested and evaluated interventions addressing vaccine hesitancy. VAX-TRUST will produce interventions for healthcare professionals who encounter vaccine hesitancy in their everyday work. Moreover, the consortium will design a new kind of evaluation process for interventions and training of evaluators in the seven research countries. The project will develop evidence-based recommendations to the European, national and regional public health authorities in collaboration with stakeholders.
Finally, together with other EU projects, VAX-TRUST will disseminate and communicate its findings to EU-level healthcare officials, healthcare authorities and policymakers, different healthcare actors, professionals, parents and the broader public as well as researchers of different disciplines.