Using social media to help parents get vaccine questions answered

Follow me on Twitter @drClaire As a pediatrician, I know that many times when parents are hesitant about vaccines, it’s because of something they read on the Internet. Sadly, much of the anti-vaccine information that is out there is either misinformation or misconstrued information — but once parents have read it, it’s not always easy to convince them that it’s misinformation or misconstrued. I’ve often wished that we could find more ways to get good vaccine information on the Internet, and give parents a way to get their questions answered and concerns allayed there, rather than getting worried. That’s exactly what researchers from Kaiser Permanente did, in a study recently published in the journal Pediatrics. They recruited women in their last trimester of pregnancy, and randomized them into three groups. One group was given access to a website with vaccine information that had a social media component that allowed them to comment and ask questions. Another group was given access to a website with vaccine information but no social media component. The third group was a “control” group, given the usual care and not given access to the website. They gave all the women a questionnaire to see how they felt about vaccines, and found that about 14% overall were “hesitant” about vaccines. Of the women given access to a website (they used a login so that researchers could see if they used it), 35% visited it at least once. Interestingly, 44% of the vaccine-hesit...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Children's Health Family Planning and Pregnancy Parenting Vaccines Source Type: blogs