Public Preferences for Settings for Vaccination of Children against 2009 H1N1 Influenza

Background: The 2009 H1N1 influenza (H1N1 flu) outbreak led public health authorities to plan for rapid H1N1 flu vaccination for children in a variety of settings, such as health departments, schools, local retail locations, and primary care providers.  Public preferences for these different settings were not known when H1N1 vaccine distribution was planned.

Objectives: To examine parental preferences for child H1N1 flu vaccination settings.

Methods: :  The CS Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health is a validated, nationally representative survey of households.  In August 2009, the authors designed a set of questions to elicit intentions to vaccinate children across the variety of settings listed above, in response to the question, “In which of these settings would you consider getting your child vaccinated against H1N1 influenza?”

Results: The response rate was 62% (n=1678).  The most preferred setting was primary care providers, with 82% ‘yes’, 11% ‘not sure’ and 7% ‘no’.  Next most preferred were school vaccination clinics (43% yes; 23% not sure; 34% no), followed by health department clinics (34% yes, 21% not sure, 45% no) and retail settings (24% yes; 27% not sure, 49% no).  When responses were aggregated across the settings, 14% of parents indicated that any setting would be acceptable, 32% preferred only primary care providers, 11% would accept any setting except for retail locations, and 10% said they would accept either the primary care setting or health department.

Conclusions: This first known assessment of public acceptance of settings for H1N1 flu vaccination for children indicates a broad array of parental preferences.  Although primary care settings are preferred by many parents, school and health department options were also acceptable to large subgroups.