Community Science was contracted by the National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support its efforts to provide individuals with accurate, timely, transparent, and audience-appropriate information about vaccines. NVPO offers unbiased advice and expertise to other agencies in identifying and responding to gaps in the vaccine system, making vaccines safer and more effective, with the end goal to reduce the burden of preventable infectious disease throughout the country.
To accomplish the project’s objectives, Community Science and its subcontractor, Communicate Health, have teamed up to provide NVPO with materials on vaccines designed to help people make—and feel confident making—decisions about vaccinations for themselves and their families. In addition to the general communications support provided by Communicate Health, Community Science will support NVPO efforts to better understand the nature of informed decision-making regarding adult immunization through research on vaccine confidence. Broadly speaking, vaccine confidence refers to the trust placed in vaccines, those administering vaccines, and the system involved in manufacturing, licensing, and recommending vaccines. Community Science will first create a measure of vaccine confidence by reviewing the literature, developing items for an index, and implementing a survey to assess the reliability and validity of the index. In addition, the project team will work with NVPO and a technical expert panel to design a research protocol using the validated index aimed at understanding adults’ vaccine confidence levels and the association between confidence and compliance with adult immunization recommendations. NVPO’s vaccine confidence objectives also include facilitating visibility of research efforts and fostering collaborations that further understanding of vaccine confidence. To that end, Community Science will plan and deliver a one-day workshop on the latest developments in vaccine confidence research with key stakeholders.
