The impact of the media on the decision of parents in South Wales to accept measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) immunization

Walsh, S., Thomas, Daniel Rhys, Mason, B. W. and Evans, Meirion Rhys ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3578-1866 2015. The impact of the media on the decision of parents in South Wales to accept measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) immunization. Epidemiology and Infection 143 (3) , pp. 550-560. 10.1017/S0950268814000752

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Abstract

A large measles outbreak occurred in South Wales in 2012/2013. The outbreak has been attributed to low take-up of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) immunization in the early 2000s. To understand better the factors that led to this outbreak we present the findings of a case-control study carried out in the outbreak area in 2001 to investigate parents' decision on whether to accept MMR. Parents who decided not to take-up MMR at the time were more likely to be older and better educated, more likely to report being influenced by newspapers [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 3·07, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·62–5·80], television (aOR 3·30, 95% CI 1·70–6·43), the internet (aOR 7·23, 3·26–16·06) and vaccine pressure groups (aOR 5·20, 95% CI 2·22–12·16), and less likely to be influenced by a health visitor (aOR 0·30, 95% CI 0·16–0·57). In this area of Wales, daily English-language regional newspapers, UK news programmes and the internet appeared to have a powerful negative influence. We consider the relevance of these findings to the epidemiology of the outbreak and the subsequent public health response.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	0950-2688
Date of Acceptance:	11 March 2014
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2022 10:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/90853

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