Project
We aim to improve the experience of healthcare professionals and patients in encountering the topic of vaccination.
Research
Read more about our research objectives, phases, and Work Packages.
The ”VAX-TRUST – Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Europe” research project scrutinizes vaccine hesitancy as a broad societal phenomenon. The project is carried out in Finland, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, and the UK.
Ever since vaccines have been developed, individuals have questioned the value and importance of vaccines for their health, and expressed distrust towards proponents of vaccines. These individuals doubt the benefits of vaccines, raise concerns about their safety and efficacy, and question the need for them. We will give vaccine hesitant parents the time and space to discuss this complex issue in our interviews.
Vaccine hesitancy is a most burning issue for healthcare professionals who meet more and more challenges in building trust relationships with their patients. Healthcare professionals need abilities to encounter vaccine hesitant individuals so that these individuals can make their decisions about health. Professionals need to be prepared to answer questions and concerns related to vaccines.
VAX-TRUST strives for both increasing understanding of vaccine hesitancy and improving the interaction between healthcare professionals and vaccine hesitant individuals. In this project, we will:
- equip healthcare professionals with tailored up-to-date knowledge on vaccine hesitancy in their specific local region and nation from a comparative perspective; this knowledge will be obtained through (A) a review of previous research on vaccine hesitancy, (B) an analysis of individual, socio-demographic determinants of vaccine hesitancy, (C) an analysis of macro-level determinants of vaccine hesitancy, and their interplay with socio-demographic ones and (D) qualitative observations and interviews with healthcare professionals and parents at local healthcare centres in specific Target Regions;
- give healthcare professionals tools, support and peer support to encounter a range of attitudes in relation to vaccination, taking into account that some professionals may themselves be vaccine hesitant. This will involve specific interventions tailored to healthcare professionals in the Target Regions. These interventions will be evaluated for usability and transferability;
- distribute the intervention tools to future healthcare professionals, medical and nursing students, in order to strengthen their knowledge about vaccine hesitancy and facilitate support to meet with vaccine hesitancy in their future career;
- identify and communicate recommendations to Target Regions, the seven countries and European area based on the project activities.
Partners
Get to know our partner organisations across the Europe.
Contact
Information about our consortium contact persons on one page.
FUNDING
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 965280.
