How far should we go to protect children from diseases?

Should we pay parents to encourage uptake of childhood vaccinations like MMR? Should we make particular vaccinations prerequisite for admission to nurseries or pre-schools, as in some states of America?

The NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme has awarded a grant of £276,000 to Fuse members Jean Adams and Falko Sniehotta of Newcastle University and Janet Shucksmith (Director of HSCI) to explore these issues.

They will be joined by colleagues from University College London, the Health Protection Agency (which has responsibility for immunisation in the UK), and a child health physician with a particular interest in this area.

The study, entitled ‘Parental incentives and quasi-mandatory schemes for increasing uptake of immunisations in pre-school children’, will involve carrying out a systematic review, a qualitative study with stakeholders and parents and a discrete choice experiment.

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