Promoting Altruism to Enhance Vaccine Acceptance

The purpose of this study is to identify associations with influenza vaccine hesitancy, including parental demographics and altruism score, in families with healthy children attending two pediatric practices.

Also, in the cohort of families with baseline vaccine hesitancy, to assess the effectiveness of a pilot educational intervention focusing on the development of herd immunity for pediatric oncology patients by measuring:

• The change in vaccine hesitancy scores pre- and post-intervention.
• The rate of influenza vaccine uptake compared to historic controls from previous influenza seasons.

Another aim is to explore the relationship between baseline influenza vaccine hesitancy rates and baseline altruism scores. Effectiveness of this intervention is dependent on parental altruism levels; therefore, the study team also seeks to determine if there is an association between parental altruism and vaccine hesitancy for their children.

This is a single-arm prospective cohort study. The study will enroll legal guardians of children who are influenza vaccine-eligible to measure their vaccine hesitancy scores, altruism scores, and the impact of an educational intervention focused on herd immunity on the guardians' vaccine hesitancy score.

Inclusion criteria

• All legal guardians of children aged 6 months and up who are influenza vaccine-eligible and present to the pediatric clinic.

Exclusion criteria

• Legal guardians of children who are not influenza vaccine-eligible including children less than 6 months of age, children on immunosuppressive medications, and children with underlying medical conditions resulting in an immunocompromised state.