Effects of Social Media on Vaccine Hesitancy By: Elissa Sillars Department of Nursing, Masters Entry into Nursing Practice 2019 Figure 1: Introduction Vaccine hesitancy is rapidly increasing among parents, causing delay or refusal to vaccinate Misinformation on the internet/public opinion,parents focus attention on the risks, side effects and negative aspects of vaccines Disregard the documented benefits creating vaccine adherence Increased need to use credible sources for parental education 62% of American use the internet for health information most commonly social media Differ between credible versus non-credible sources, Relationship between vaccine education and adherence Findings Credible Sources of Vaccine Information Domain system names (DSN) .edu, .org & .gov The National Library of Medicine’s Medline Plus (www.medlineplus.gov) The Center for Disease Control (CDC) (www.cdc.gov) The National Network for Immunization Information (NNii) (www.immunizationinfo.org) The National Institutes of Health (www.mih.gov/icd) The Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (www.vaccine.chop.edu) The World Health Organization (WHO) (www.who.int) Vaxopedia (www.vaxopedia.org)* *verified as a trusted source through the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC). Vaccine Safety Net (www.vaccinesafetynet.org) Every Child by Two (ECBT) The American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP) (www.aap.org) Social Media/ Internet Parental decision & views on vaccination are influenced by radio, television, and social networks, including celebrities. Social media is prevalent in society, parents trust the information seen in a link on Facebook, Instagram, or in a tweet. Users can generate own content vaccine controversy. “Emotionally charged data” increased hesitancy Ultimately, this contributes to the spread of misinformation and prevalence of non-credible sources encompassing the internet. See Figures 2 & 3 Health Care Professional Distrust Use of social media/ internet as a credible source of information, poses a major problem, parents, discredit recommendations by primary care provider. (Figure 2) Hard for providers to compete with information, not enough time spent to counter misinformation and provide accurate information Build trusting relationship Interventions Educate on credible sources: parents want information on ways to research vaccines “Facebook Initiative” -Remove false information from Facebook and Instagram Increase provider/ nurse education Methods Integrative literature review used to identify various sources of education and information parents receive on vaccinations either by the clinician or outside sources such as social media. Assess parental adherence to the childhood vaccination schedule based on the education received. Sources of education: clinicians, peers, internet search engines (e.g. Google), social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram Twitter), news articles and newspapers, magazines, and asses the credibility of the sources Credibility of sources were determined based on origin of information. See Figure 1 Nursing Implications Society places trust, dependence in nursing care Nurses should provide more vaccine education to parents Nurses should be aware of the impact social media has on parents Nurses constantly assess and should utilize assessment to determine reason for vaccine hesitancy Appropriate communicant strategies can be used to cater to specific needs of parents” gentle, persuasive step-wise manner” Figure 3: Figure 2: Conceptual Framework Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior Regardless of opinion or viewpoint, vaccines are a choice Non credible sources like social media influence this choice and reinforce reason for decisions and actions Regardless of information researched, some parents already have their behavior planned and is difficult to change this behavior. Seek validation in concerns and disproval w/o questioning validity. .