Abstract
This study aimed to test the influence of vaccination characteristics and gain/loss-framing of information, on parental acceptance of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination for their minor children. A discrete choice experiment was conducted among parents of children aged 0-17 years from September to October 2021 in Hong Kong. Respondents were randomly assigned to four groups with different framing of information and asked to choose hypothetical vaccination alternatives, described by seven attributes that were derived from prior qualitative interviews. A mixed logit model was adopted to analyze the effect of attributes and information framing on parental vaccination acceptance. The vaccine acceptance rates under different scenarios were also estimated. A total of 298 valid responses were obtained. It was found that the BioNTech brand, higher efficacy, less serious adverse events and more vaccination coverage in children significantly improved parental acceptance. Additionally, loss-framing increased parental acceptance compared with gain-framing, while the presentation of mortality information did not make a difference. Acceptance was also associated with parental uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine and the children's age. CONCLUSION: The findings imply that factors including gain/loss information framing, importance of vaccine characteristics, and peer influence have a significant effect on parents' decisions to get their children vaccinated. Parents with younger children had greater vaccine hesitancy, and information framing techniques should be considered in vaccination promotion for combating such vaccine hesitancy. Future studies could be conducted to identify the moderators and mediators of information framing to facilitate its implementation. WHAT IS KNOWN: • Parental acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine was found to be associated with various socio-economic and psychosocial factors, while the evidence on impact of vaccination characteristics was limited. • Behavioral interventions, including information framing, have been used to promote various health behaviors. WHAT IS NEW: • Loss-framing of information on vaccine effectiveness improves vaccine acceptance, while additional information on how the vaccine reduces death does not make a difference, which can be used to inform communication with the public in vaccination promotion. • The social norm (i.e., the vaccine uptake amongst other people) is important for increasing the parental vaccine acceptance rate.