van der Linden Sander L, Clarke Chris E, Maibach Edward W
Department of Psychology and Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Department of Communication, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2015 Dec 3;15:1207. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-2541-4.
A substantial minority of American adults continue to hold influential misperceptions about childhood vaccine safety. Growing public concern and refusal to vaccinate poses a serious public health risk. Evaluations of recent pro-vaccine health communication interventions have revealed mixed results (at best). This study investigated whether highlighting consensus among medical scientists about childhood vaccine safety can lower public concern, reduce key misperceptions about the discredited autism-vaccine link and promote overall support for vaccines.
American adults (N = 206) were invited participate in an online survey experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control group or to one of three treatment interventions. The treatment messages were based on expert-consensus estimates and either normatively described or prescribed the extant medical consensus: "90 % of medical scientists agree that vaccines are safe and that all parents should be required to vaccinate their children".
Compared to the control group, the consensus-messages significantly reduced vaccine concern (M = 3.51 vs. M = 2.93, p < 0.01) and belief in the vaccine-autism-link (M = 3.07 vs M = 2.15, p < 0.01) while increasing perceived consensus about vaccine safety (M = 83.93 vs M = 89.80, p < 0.01) and public support for vaccines (M = 5.66 vs M = 6.22, p < 0.01). Mediation analysis further revealed that the public's understanding of the level of scientific agreement acts as an important "gateway" belief by promoting public attitudes and policy support for vaccines directly as well as indirectly by reducing endorsement of the discredited autism-vaccine link.
These findings suggest that emphasizing the medical consensus about (childhood) vaccine safety is likely to be an effective pro-vaccine message that could help prevent current immunization rates from declining. We recommend that clinicians and public health officials highlight and communicate the high degree of medical consensus on (childhood) vaccine safety when possible.
相当一部分美国成年人仍然对儿童疫苗安全性持有有影响力的错误认知。公众日益增长的担忧以及拒绝接种疫苗构成了严重的公共卫生风险。对近期支持疫苗的健康传播干预措施的评估结果喜忧参半（充其量如此）。本研究调查了强调医学科学家对儿童疫苗安全性的共识是否能够降低公众的担忧，减少对已被否定的自闭症与疫苗关联的关键错误认知，并促进对疫苗的总体支持。
邀请美国成年人（N = 206）参与一项在线调查实验。参与者被随机分配到对照组或三种治疗干预措施之一。治疗信息基于专家共识估计，规范性地描述或规定了现有的医学共识：“90%的医学科学家一致认为疫苗是安全的，所有父母都应被要求为其子女接种疫苗”。
与对照组相比，共识信息显著降低了对疫苗的担忧（M = 3.51对M = 2.93，p < 0.01）以及对疫苗与自闭症关联的信念（M = 3.07对M = 2.15，p < 0.01），同时增加了对疫苗安全性的感知共识（M = 83.93对M = 89.80，p < 0.01）以及公众对疫苗的支持（M = 5.66对M = 6.22，p < 0.01）。中介分析进一步表明，公众对科学共识程度的理解通过直接促进公众对疫苗的态度和政策支持，以及通过减少对已被否定的自闭症与疫苗关联的认可，间接地起到了重要的“门户”信念作用。
这些发现表明，强调关于（儿童）疫苗安全性的医学共识可能是一条有效的支持疫苗的信息，有助于防止当前的免疫接种率下降。我们建议临床医生和公共卫生官员在可能的情况下强调并传达关于（儿童）疫苗安全性的高度医学共识。
