Identify the public health impact of low vaccine coverage.
Describe key groups who might be vaccine hesitant.
State concerns related to social and digital media influencing vaccine opinions.
Identify key factors to building vaccine confidence.
Recognize presumptive language and other communication strategies.
Summary
Vaccine confidence is important to vaccine uptake and has important public health implications. This presentation reviews several factors driving vaccine hesitancy and presents approaches to improve vaccine confidence. Vaccine hesitancy exists on a continuum, and anyone can be vaccine-hesitant including parents, adults, community members, and health care providers. Drivers of vaccine hesitancy include parental skepticism, the influence of close-knit communities/peer groups, and information from local and social media. Health care providers have a pivotal role in building vaccine confidence because they are the most trusted resource for health information. The presenter will review various communication strategies to help improve vaccine confidence, including a presumptive approach (i.e., which assumes that the parent/patient is willing to be vaccinated), storytelling, myth-busting, and motivational interviewing.
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