OBJECTIVES This study aimed to describe the importance to mothers of different reasons to vaccinate children against diarrheal illness; quantify mothers’ preferences and predicted uptake for vaccines to prevent such illnesses; and examine how these results differ between working and nonworking mothers.
METHODS Working and nonworking mothers of children aged ≤3 years living in Poland and Hungary completed an online survey. Mothers rated the importance of reasons to vaccinate children using a Likert rating scale. Each of a series of discrete-choice experiment questions asked the respondent to indicate whether she preferred no vaccination or one of two hypothetical vaccine profiles with different features. Vaccine preference parameters were estimated using a random-parameters logit model. Preference parameters were used to calculate monetary equivalents and predicted uptake for alternative vaccines against children’s diarrheal illnesses.
RESULTS The study surveyed 350 mothers in Poland and 350 mothers in Hungary. Given the attribute levels shown in the study, changes in vaccine cost were most important in both countries, followed by changes in the severity of illness prevented, effectiveness of the vaccine, mode of administration, duration of illness prevented, and number of doses. In both samples, mothers indicated a strong preference for vaccination versus no vaccination. This preference was even stronger among working mothers. In Poland, compared with nonworking mothers, working mothers placed less importance on effectiveness, severity, and vaccine cost and were more likely to rate disruptions in work, child care, and routines as the most important reasons to vaccinate children against diarrheal illness. Although getting vaccinated was 9 times more important than improving vaccine effectiveness (from 50% to 95% effective) among nonworking Polish mothers, it was 50 times more important to working Polish mothers.
CONCLUSIONS Polish and Hungarian working mothers would be more likely to vaccinate children against diarrheal illness than nonworking mothers.
