Background: Mandatory vaccination has been mooted to combat falling childhood vaccine uptake rates in England. This study investigated parental preferences for a mandatory vaccination scheme.
Methods: Discrete choice experiment. Six attributes were investigated: vaccine (MMR, 6-in-1), child age group (2 years and older, 5 years and older), incentive (130 GBP cash incentive for parent, 130 GBP voucher incentive for child, no incentive), penalty (450 GBP fine, parent not able to claim Child Benefits for an unvaccinated child, unvaccinated child not able to attend school or day care), ability to opt out (medical exemption only, medical and religious belief exemption), and compensation scheme (not offered, offered). Mixed effects conditional logit regression models were used to investigate parental preferences and relative importance of attributes.
Findings: Participants were 1,001 parents of children aged 5 years and under (53% female, mean age=33.6 years, SD=7.1, 84% white British). Parental preferences were mostly based on incentives (slight preference for cash pay-out for the parent versus a voucher for the child) and penalties (preference for schemes that did not allow unvaccinated children to attend school or day care and those that withheld financial benefits for parents of unvaccinated children). Parents also preferred schemes that: offered a compensation scheme, mandated the 6-in-1 vaccine, mandated vaccination in children aged 2 years and older, and that offered only medical exemptions.
Interpretation: Results can inform policymakers' decisions about how best to implement a mandatory childhood vaccination scheme in England.
Funding: Data collection was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (SRG1920\101118).
Parental preferences toward genomic sequencing for non-medically actionable conditions in children: a discrete-choice experiment
