Reliability and validity of a survey to identify vaccine hesitancy among parents in Changxing county, Zhejiang province

ABSTRACT

Background: To evaluate the validity and reliability of a survey to identify vaccine hesitancy among parents.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey of parents of 19–35 month old children was conducted in Changxing County, Zhejiang Province, through a questionnaire developed for the survey of the vaccine hesitancy. Construct validity was assessed by linking parental responses to their child’s immunization record. The association between mean% of days of under-immunization and the parental socio-demographics and the individual item response was explored via the univariate and multivariate analyses. Factor analysis was applied to confirm survey sub-domains and Cronbach’s α to determine the internal consistency reliability of sub-domain scales.

Results: We approached 336 households while 285 of them agreed to participate in this study. Education level and the parental ‘score of vaccination hesitancy’ were significantly associated with the mean% of days of under-immunization. Cronbach’s coefficients for the 3 sub-domain scales created by re-grouping the questionnaire’s items were 0.71, 0.83, and 0.72, respectively.

Conclusions: The survey represented a valid and reliable instrument to identify VHPs and it could help to screen parents to receive an intervention aimed at increasing acceptance of vaccinations.

KEYWORDS:

• Immunization
• survey
• reliability
• validity
• hesitancy

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest were disclosed.

Acknowledgments

Great acknowledgement go to the immunization staff from Changxin CDC for their investigation and data collection.

Author Contributions

Yu Hu conceived and designed the study; Yu Hu and Yaping Chen performed the study; Yu Hu and Ying Wang analyzed the data; Hui Liang and Ying Wang contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools; Yu Hu wrote the paper.

Ethical considerations

This study was approved by the ethical review board of Zhejiang provincial CDC. Written informed consent was obtained from a parent of each eligible child enrolled in this survey.