Factors impacting vaccine hesitant parents of young children in Northern British Columbia: a qualitative study from a health care communicator’s lens

Abstract

In 2019 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared vaccine hesitancy as a top threat to global health while highlighting the concerning resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases. In the Northern British Columbia region, which is under the jurisdiction of the Northern Health Authority, there are lower routine child vaccination rates than the rest of the province, however, these rates do not tell us why parents may be vaccine hesitant. As a communications professional working in healthcare, I conducted this qualitative research to better understand the local barriers and drivers of vaccination for Northern BC parents. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two key audiences: parents of young children (five years and younger) and immunizers (nurses) who administer routine child vaccinations. The interview data were analyzed using discourse analysis to develop vaccination-related themes. Unexpected results included the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on increasing parental vaccine hesitancy, the impact of the pandemic on increasing general vaccine awareness, the experience of first-time parents, and the impact of family dynamics in small communities. This research also revealed the extreme difficulty in recruiting participants in the vaccine-hesitant parent population. In accordance with the WHO’s Tailoring Immunization Programmes approach of not guessing why populations may be hesitant but determining the root cause, this research sheds light on several reasons why Northern BC parents may be vaccine-hesitant, and it goes one step further by offering strategic communication recommendations informed by the Behaviour Change Wheel to help increase vaccine uptake for young children in the region.