Parental willingness to enter a child in a controlled vaccine trial.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the reasons that motivate parents to enrol or not enrol their child in a randomized, controlled vaccine trial.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey.

SETTING

Offices of primary care physicians in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and Montreal, Quebec.

PARTICIPANTS

At the 2 sites, parents of 2-month-old infants at their first immunization visit who had decided to enrol (221) or not enrol (208) their child in 2 randomized pertussis vaccine trials.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Rates of enrolment in vaccine trials; attitudes about medical research; sources of information about pertussis.

RESULTS

Enrolment rates were 68% and 43% at the 2 sites. All parents agreed to answer questions about their decision to enrol or not enrol their child. The most common concerns resulting in nonenrolment were extra immunization 54% (26/48) and blood procurement 42% (20/48). Parents who did enrol their children were motivated to participate by the desire to contribute to medical knowledge (77% [170/221]), the desire to help others (48% [106/221]) and by the participation of their family physician (54% [120/221]). The enrollees' major sources of information about pertussis was health professionals or study personnel rather than the media.

CONCLUSIONS

Altruistic reasons motivate parents' decision to enrol a child in a randomized, controlled vaccine trial. Nonparticipating parents seem most concerned about painful procedures in the study. Parents' decisions regarding participation do not appear to be affected by adverse media attention regarding the purported adverse sequelae of pertussis vaccines.