The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine scare : the information needs and information sources of parents.

This thesis presents the findings of a three year AHRB funded PhD examining the role of information in the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine scare. The findings of research by Wakefield et al. (1998) regarding alleged side effects of the MMR vaccine and the subsequent media reporting of this research influenced parents’ decision making about the MMR vaccine and led to falling MMR vaccine rates and confusion regarding the safety of the MMR vaccine. This study sought to examine parents’ information needs, parents’ views about information and the information that parents were provided with in relation to the MMR vaccine and the MMR vaccine scare. The study took the form of three phases of data collection: a semi structured interview study with parents of children aged between one and two years (n=17), a questionnaire study, utilising the Health Belief Model (HBM) with parents of children aged between one and two years (n=l 12) and a content analysis of newspaper articles and World Wide Web (WWW) news articles (n=227) during an episode of the MMR vaccine scare in January and February 2002. The data collected in the interview and questionnaire studies were triangulated for confirmation and completeness. The study found that the information needs of parents tended to be based around the potential risk to their child of the MMR vaccine and did not address the risk of measles, mumps and rubella. Parents had unmet information needs relating to the MMR vaccine scare. Some parents sought information to address these needs, while others did not as they did not believe that the information they wanted was available. The extent to which parents used different information sources was related to the extent to which they trusted the information source and the motives that the source had in providing information. This emphasised the importance of interpersonal information sources for parents. Parents received information about the MMR vaccine scare from the mass media, but found it hard to use as the mass media were not providing information to aid decision making and the information that was provided was often conflicting. The content analysis found that while the media attempt to provide balanced articles about the MMR vaccine, the agenda behind media information is not to enable informed decision-making. In conclusion, the MMR vaccine scare generated information needs for parents, but also influenced how they use information sources.