Cost of living could be behind declining childhood vaccinations, doctors speculate

The declining rate of compliance with childhood vaccination in Australia could have more to do with cost barriers and a lack of appointment availability than vaccine hesitancy or skepticism, new findings from the National Vaccination Insights project suggest.

Run collaboratively between the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), the University of Sydney and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the Insights project is working to establish the first systematic national surveillance of drivers of under-vaccination in Australia, with early findings suggesting that cost and availability of appointments are having an impact on families with children under five years of age, in terms of vaccinating to schedule. 

In a survey of 2000 Australian parents of children in that age bracket, the data showed that 11 per cent of respondents said they could not afford the costs associated with vaccination and a further 9.3 per cent said they could not easily get an appointment.

Additionally, 8.2 per cent said they did not prioritise vaccination appointments, while 6 per cent thought vaccines were not safe and 5.3 per cent did not believe vaccines were effective.

Dr Katarzyna Bolsewicz, one of the lead researchers, spoke with newsGP and explained that the initial findings will be followed by qualitative research and in-depth interviews to try and determine the main causes of the access barriers.

“Immunisation for children is free of charge under the NIP (National Immunisation Program), but consultation costs sometimes are not and there are other costs also related to parents needing to take time off work and transportation-related costs, especially for parents and carers in more regional and rural areas,” she said.

‘The exact understanding of those cost-related barriers and why it’s not easy for parents to get to the appointment, we will know only after we have conducted the interviews.This type of data is absolutely important, but it needs to be supplemented with the social and behavioural insights which give us a story of why.”

Dr Bolsewicz said the findings so far do not indicate that vaccine hesitancy is a major contributing factor to partial vaccination.

Instead, she says there are practical issues at play that need to be looked at.

The next steps of the research will be completed over the coming months, with more findings to be revealed shortly.

“These are bigger issues that we’re seeing, and we need to support GPs and practice nurses in doing their job,” she said.

This story has been taken from a longer form piece which appeared in NewsGP. Access the original here.