Thread by @FlorianStoeckel

1/5 Is vaccine hesitancy tracked by pub opinion surveys linked to vaccine uptake? One would expect a link, but there is not much data. Tricky,e.g. b/c immunization data for survey respondents is usually unavailable. W @ba_lyons @charliecar13 @JasonReifler
doi.org/10.1016/j.vacc…

2/5 We analyse regional level data for the EU from 2019. We find significantly lower childhood vaccine uptake rates in regions where hesitancy is more pronounced. Surveys seem to be helpful in research on vaccine uptake (relevant also for COVID-19 vax hesitancy related research).

3/5 We focus on three childhood vaccines because of data availability. We aggregate data at the regional level: 20 EU countries, 177 regions. We link Eurobarometer survey data from 2019 on vaccine hesitancy to vaccine uptake data from the WHO also for 2019.

4/5 Implications: could be important for interventions, e.g. monitoring where vaccine uptake is likely to be low (when vax uptake data is unavailable/incomplete) or learning from regions with high uptake (despite high hesitancy) so that best practices could be applied elsewhere.

5/5 More implic: 1)EU surveys (eg EB,ESS) could include vax hesitancy regularly 2)standard batteries rather than new items should be used 3)samples representative at regional levels would facilitate comparisons with uptake data 4)efforts needed to improve availab. of uptake data