Program
Physician Assistant M.S.
Year Approved
2019
First Advisor
Naser, Lisa
Abstract
Vaccine hesitancy describes the reluctance to vaccinate or the delay of vaccines (World Health Organization [WHO], 2017a). Various factors contribute to vaccine hesitancy for patients (Salmon, Dudley, Glanz, & Somer, 2015), and multiple sources are used by patients to gain vaccine information (Salmon et al., 2015), making it difficult for healthcare providers to address vaccine hesitancy. This research was conducted to identify factors that cause mothers to be vaccine hesitant and information sources used to support the mothers’ vaccination beliefs. Phone interviews were conducted with twelve vaccine hesitant mothers. Participants were asked if the following factors contributed to their vaccine hesitancy: religion, media, fear of side effects/vaccine injury, autism, government distrust, pharmaceutical distrust, healthcare provider influence, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and additional factors. Participants were also asked about information sources relating to each factor. All factors were identified by participants as a reason for their vaccine hesitancy. The three most common factors identified included fear of vaccine injury/side effects, government distrust, and the fear of autism. Information sources reported were widely variable.
Degree Name
Masters of Science in Physician Assistant
Document Type
Masterʼs thesis
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Benner, A. L., Vasterling, A., & Wolter, T. (2019). A Qualitative Examination of Vaccine Hesitancy Among Mothers [Masterʼs thesis, Bethel University]. Spark Repository. https://spark.bethel.edu/etd/62