Health information assessment by vaccine hesitant parents

Vaccines are widely considered to be one of the greatest successes of public health, but vaccine hesitancy has been internationally recognized as a health threat. Efforts to use information to increase vaccine acceptance have largely been unsuccessful, highlighting the need to better understand the information practices, values and experiences of hesitant populations. This constructivist grounded theory study explored health information experiences of 23 mothers in the Greater Vancouver region of Canada who had changed their minds about vaccines, in order to understand the ways information may have influenced their vaccination beliefs and practices. While health information sources were similar across the study population, assessment of vaccine‐related information varied a great deal. In particular, mothers reported difficulty triangulating and assessing information during periods of affective stress, such as following their first birth or around a child's illness. Helping mothers triangulate information among trusted sources may help build vaccine confidence.