Does education about local vaccination rates and the importance of herd immunity change US parents’ concern about measles?

• DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.09.076
• Publication Date: 2020-11-05T02:23:09Z
• Authors: Bridget C. Griffith; Angela K. Ulrich; Andy B. Becker; Dawn Nederhoff; Brandon Koch; Fareed A. Awan; Nicole E. Basta
• Keywords: Herd Immunity; MMR vaccine; Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine

It is unclear how broadly aware parents are of the concept herd immunity and whether consider community benefits vaccination when making decisions about their child's vaccinations. We aimed to determine educating community-level measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) local rates would impact concern risk measles a outbreak. conducted an electronic survey among Minnesota children aged 6–18 years in August 2016. assessed baseline knowledge immunity, asked participants estimate MMR coverage county, minimum needed prevent outbreaks. then delivered short, educational intervention via inform actual that at least 95% Pre- post-intervention, were report concerned they child might get measles. used logistic regression models assess factors associated with awareness change one's risk, overall for Among 493 participants, 67.8% baseline. Post-intervention, 40.2% (n = 198) learned county higher than expected. All found out lower threshold 95%. Overall, 27.0% 133) reported increase after learning achieve immunity. our led disease less third parents.