The Impact of Social Networks on Parents’ Vaccination Decisions
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Parents decide whether their children are vaccinated, but they rarely reach these decisions on their own. Instead parents are influenced by their social networks, broadly defined as the people and sources they go to for information, direction, and advice. This study used social network analysis to formally examine parents’ social networks (people networks and source net-works) related to their vaccination decision-making. In addition to providing descriptions of typical networks of parents who conform to the recommended vaccination schedule (conformers) and those who do not (nonconformers), this study also quantified the effect of network variables on parents’ vaccination choices. METHODS This study took place in King County, Washington. Participation was limited to US-born, first-time parents with children aged ≤18 months. Data were collected via an online survey. Logistic regression was used to analyze the resulting data. RESULTS One hundred twenty-six conformers and 70 nonconformers completed the survey. Although people networks were reported by 95% of parents in both groups, nonconformers were significantly more likely to report source networks (100% vs 80%, P < .001). Model comparisons of parent, people, and source network characteristics indicated that people network variables were better predictors of parents’ vaccination choices than parents’ own characteristics or the characteristics of their source networks. In fact, the variable most predictive of parents’ vaccination decisions was the percent of parents’ people networks recommending nonconformity. CONCLUSIONS These results strongly suggest that social networks, and particularly parents’ people networks, play an important role in parents’ vaccination decision-making.Keywords:
Social network (sociolinguistics)
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Annual vaccination of children against influenza is a key component of vaccination programs in many countries. However, past infection and vaccination may affect an individual's susceptibility to infection. Little research has evaluated whether annual vaccination is the best strategy. Using the United Kingdom as our motivating example, we developed a framework to assess the impact of different childhood vaccination strategies, specifically annual and biennial (every other year), on attack rate and expected number of infections.We present a multi-annual, individual-based, stochastic, force of infection model that accounts for individual exposure histories and disease/vaccine dynamics influencing susceptibility. We simulate birth cohorts that experience yearly influenza epidemics and follow them until age 18 to determine attack rates and the number of infections during childhood. We perform simulations under baseline conditions, with an assumed vaccination coverage of 44%, to compare annual vaccination to no and biennial vaccination. We relax our baseline assumptions to explore how our model assumptions impact vaccination program performance. At baseline, we observed less than half the number of infections between the ages 2 and 10 under annual vaccination in children who had been vaccinated at least half the time compared to no vaccination. When averaged over all ages 0-18, the number of infections under annual vaccination was 2.07 (2.06, 2.08) compared to 2.63 (2.62, 2.64) under no vaccination, and 2.38 (2.37, 2.40) under biennial vaccination. When we introduced a penalty for repeated exposures, we observed a decrease in the difference in infections between the vaccination strategies. Specifically, the difference in childhood infections under biennial compared to annual vaccination decreased from 0.31 to 0.04 as exposure penalty increased.Our results indicate that while annual vaccination averts more childhood infections than biennial vaccination, this difference is small. Our work confirms the value of annual vaccination in children, even with modest vaccination coverage, but also shows that similar benefits of vaccination may be obtained by implementing a biennial vaccination program.Many countries include annual vaccination of children against influenza in their vaccination programs. In the United Kingdom (UK), annual vaccination of children aged of 2 to 10 against influenza is recommended. However, little research has evaluated whether annual vaccination is the best strategy, while accounting for how past infection and vaccination may affect an individual's susceptibility to infection in the current influenza season. Prior work has suggested that there may be a negative effect of repeated vaccination. In this work we developed a stochastic, individual-based model to assess the impact of repeated vaccination strategies on childhood infections. Specifically, we first compare annual vaccination to no vaccination and then annual vaccination to biennial (every other year) vaccination. We use the UK as our motivating example. We found that an annual vaccination strategy resulted in the fewest childhood infections, followed by biennial vaccination. The difference in number of childhood infections between the different vaccination strategies decreased when we introduced a penalty for repeated exposures. Our work confirms the value of annual vaccination in children, but also shows that similar benefits of vaccination can be obtained by implementing a biennial vaccination program, particularly when there is a negative effect of repeated vaccinations.
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Trivalent influenza vaccine
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Sina Weibo (Weibo) is a fast growing microblogging social network with total user size closer to Twitter. Weibo adopts a mechanism to verify users, so that the public can identify true accounts of celebrities and official channels of certain organizations. The verification mechanism builds trust and authenticity to the source, and hence, stimulates people to actively participate on the platform. However, how the verifications affect the user behaviors in microblogging social networks have never been fully investigated. This paper analyzes the Weibo social network with verifications, by comparing the user microblogging behaviors between verified users and unverified users and studying the social network evolvements of these two group of users. In addition, a method is proposed to approximately reconstruct the network evolvement, and lower bound quasi-densification exponents for the social networks are found. Empirical evidence demonstrates that verifications play a significant role in motivating users to have more interactions in a social network.
Microblogging
Social network (sociolinguistics)
Social Network Analysis
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Vaccination is crucial to the control of equine influenza (EI). The study was conducted in an effort to lay the groundwork for achieving international harmonisation of regulatory requirements based on scientific evidence of performance of different vaccination regimes.To evaluate the effectiveness of 3 different primary vaccination regimes: vaccination with the minimal intervals permitted by the racing authorities; vaccination in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and vaccination with the longest intervals permitted by the racing authorities.Randomised, prospective clinical trial.The 55 seronegative unvaccinated horses in this study were subdivided by age and randomly allocated one of the 3 vaccination regimes. All groups were sampled each time a group was vaccinated and 3-5 weeks post vaccination. Horses were vaccinated with a subunit immune stimulating complex-based vaccine (Equip FT). Antibodies against EI were measured by single radial haemolysis.Lengthening the vaccination intervals increased the immunity gaps between first (V1) and second (V2) doses, and V2 and third dose (V3) but did not inhibit the response to V2 and V3. The response to V2 and V3 was similar irrespective of the regime. Poor responders to V1 were identified in all age groups included in this study but the greatest number of poor responders was among the yearlings. The 2- and 3-year-old horses responded better to vaccination than the weanlings or yearlings.Longer vaccination intervals permitted by racing authorities increase the periods of susceptibility to EI but they may facilitate strategic vaccination prior to times of increased risk of exposure to virus. The study provides the type of evidence-based data necessary to commence meaningful discussion of international harmonisation of EI vaccination requirements.
Equine influenza
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Abstract Introduction Annual vaccination of children against influenza is a key component of vaccination programs in many countries. However, past infection and vaccination may affect an individual’s susceptibility to infection. Little research has evaluated whether annual vaccination is the best strategy. Using the United Kingdom as our motivating example, we assess the impact of different childhood vaccination strategies, specifically annual and biennial (every other year), on attack rate and expected number of infections. Methods and Findings We present a multi-annual, individual-based, stochastic, force of infection model that accounts for individual exposure histories and disease/vaccine dynamics influencing susceptibility. We simulate birth cohorts that experience yearly influenza epidemics and follow them until age 18 to determine attack rates and the number of childhood infections. We perform simulations under baseline conditions, with an assumed vaccination coverage of 44%, to compare annual vaccination to no and biennial vaccination. We relax our baseline assumptions to explore how our model assumptions impact vaccination program performance. At baseline, we observed more than a 50% reduction in the number of infections between the ages 2 and 10 under annual vaccination in children who had been vaccinated at least half the time compared to no vaccination. When averaged over all ages 0-18, the number of infections under annual vaccination was 2.07 (2.06, 2.08) compared to 2.63 (2.62, 2.64) under no vaccination, and 2.38 (2.37, 2.40) under biennial vaccination. When we introduced a penalty for repeated exposures, we observed a decrease in the difference in infections between the vaccination strategies. Specifically, the difference in childhood infections under biennial compared to annual vaccination decreased from 0.31 to 0.04 as exposure penalty increased. Conclusion Our results indicate that while annual vaccination averts more childhood infections than biennial vaccination, this difference is small. Our work confirms the value of annual vaccination in children, even with modest vaccination coverage, but also shows that similar benefits of vaccination can be obtained by implementing a biennial vaccination program. Author summary Many countries include annual vaccination of children against influenza in their vaccination programs. In the United Kingdom, annual vaccination of children aged of 2 to 10 against influenza is recommended. However, little research has evaluated whether annual vaccination is the best strategy, while accounting for how past infection and vaccination may affect an individual’s susceptibility to infection in the current influenza season. Prior work has suggested that there may be a negative effect of repeated vaccination. In this work we developed a stochastic, individual-based model to assess the impact of repeated vaccination strategies on childhood infections. Specifically, we first compare annual vaccination to no vaccination and then annual vaccination to biennial (every other year) vaccination. We use the UK as our motivating example. We found that an annual vaccination strategy resulted in the fewest childhood infections, followed by biennial vaccination. The difference in number of childhood infections between the different vaccination strategies decreased when we introduced a penalty for repeated exposures. Our work confirms the value of annual vaccination in children, but also shows that similar benefits of vaccination can be obtained by implementing a biennial vaccination program, particularly when there is a negative effect of repeated vaccinations.
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Microblogging
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Social Network Analysis
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To investigate the operation of children's vaccination clinics in Shandong Province, simulate the efficiency of vaccination capacity utilization, and explore the feasibility of carrying out adult vaccination in children's vaccination clinics.
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The nationally-recognized Susquehanna
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musical level.AÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂA¢AÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂA Experience choral
singing that will take you to new
heights!
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