IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/medema/v41y2021i5p550-558.html

Vaccine Hesitancy and Differential Susceptibility to Media Coverage: A Critical Documentary Led to Substantial Reductions in Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Uptake in Denmark

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Knoth Humlum

    (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Midtjylland, Denmark)

  • Niels Skipper

    (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Midtjylland, Denmark)

  • Peter Rønø Thingholm

    (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Midtjylland, Denmark)

Abstract

Objectives To investigate whether negative media coverage of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine led to a decrease in the uptake of the first dose of the HPV vaccine (HPV1) in Denmark and, importantly, whether some groups of individuals were more susceptible to negative media coverage. Methods We measured HPV vaccine uptake of 12-year-old girls born in 2001 to 2004 using Danish administrative data. A quasi-experimental design was employed to assess whether a documentary that was critical of the HPV vaccine and aired in March 2015 affected HPV uptake. Results The documentary led to a quick and substantial decrease in the monthly propensity to vaccinate, which dropped 3 percentage points—or about 50%—in response to the documentary. Responses differed substantially across subgroups, and girls from families with high socioeconomic status (SES) were more susceptible to the negative media coverage. Conclusions Susceptibility to negative media coverage varied substantially across subgroups, highlighting the need for policy makers to appropriately target and differentiate initiatives to improve vaccine compliance rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Knoth Humlum & Niels Skipper & Peter Rønø Thingholm, 2021. "Vaccine Hesitancy and Differential Susceptibility to Media Coverage: A Critical Documentary Led to Substantial Reductions in Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Uptake in Denmark," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 41(5), pages 550-558, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:41:y:2021:i:5:p:550-558
    DOI: 10.1177/0272989X211003589
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X211003589
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0272989X211003589?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maria Knoth Humlum & Rune Majlund Vejlin, 2013. "The Responses Of Youth To A Cash Transfer Conditional On Schooling: A Quasi‐Experimental Study," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 628-649, June.
    2. Anderberg, Dan & Chevalier, Arnaud & Wadsworth, Jonathan, 2011. "Anatomy of a health scare: Education, income and the MMR controversy in the UK," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 515-530, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Humlum, Maria Knoth & Morthorst, Marius Opstrup & Thingholm, Peter Rønø, 2024. "Sibling spillovers and the choice to get vaccinated: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    2. Hirani, Jonas Cuzulan & Wüst, Miriam, 2024. "Reminder design and childhood vaccination coverage," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giulietti, Corrado & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2023. "When reality bites: Local deaths and vaccine take-up," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    2. Brilli, Ylenia & Lucifora, Claudio & Russo, Antonio & Tonello, Marco, 2020. "Vaccination take-up and health: Evidence from a flu vaccination program for the elderly," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 323-341.
    3. Sofia Amaral‐Garcia & Mattia Nardotto & Carol Propper & Tommaso Valletti, 2024. "Information and vaccine hesitancy: The role of broadband Internet," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(9), pages 1936-1948, September.
    4. Vincenzo Carrieri & Leonardo Madio & Francesco Principe, 2019. "Vaccine hesitancy and (fake) news: Quasi‐experimental evidence from Italy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(11), pages 1377-1382, November.
    5. Siuda, Fabian & Zörner, Thomas, 2023. "Vaccination Spillovers in Economic Interactions," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 347, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    6. Rosa Ferrer & Helena Perrone, 2023. "Consumers’ Costly Responses to Product-Harm Crises," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(5), pages 2639-2671, May.
    7. Avdic, Daniel & Gartell, Marie, 2015. "Working while studying? Student aid design and socioeconomic achievement disparities in higher education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 26-40.
    8. Serge Blondel & François Langot & Judith E. Mueller & Jonathan Sicsic, 2026. "Preferences and Covid-19 vaccination intentions," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 100(3), pages 635-665, May.
    9. Hirani, Jonas Lau-Jensen, 2021. "Inattention or reluctance? Parental responses to vaccination reminder letters," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Alice Dominici and Lisen Arnheim Dahlström, 2023. "Targeting vaccine information framing to recipients’ education: a randomized trial," Economics Working Papers EUI ECO 2023/02, European University Institute.
    11. MERADEE, Tangvatcharapong, 2024. "The Impact of Vaccine Misinformation : Evidence from the US," CEI Working Paper Series 2023-07, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    12. Lehmann, Hartmut & Wadsworth, Jonathan, 2011. "The impact of Chernobyl on health and labour market performance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 843-857.
    13. Jensen, Vibeke Myrup & Wüst, Miriam, 2015. "Can Caesarean section improve child and maternal health? The case of breech babies," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 289-302.
    14. Gunnes, Trude & Kirkebøen, Lars J. & Rønning, Marte, 2013. "Financial incentives and study duration in higher education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 1-11.
    15. Brilli, Ylenia & Lucifora, Claudio & Russo, Antonio & Tonello, Marco, 2020. "Influenza vaccination behavior and media reporting of adverse events," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(12), pages 1403-1411.
    16. Pruckner, Gerald J. & Schneeweis, Nicole & Schober, Thomas & Zweimüller, Martina, 2021. "Birth order, parental health investment, and health in childhood," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    17. Lenisa V. Chang, 2018. "Information, education, and health behaviors: Evidence from the MMR vaccine autism controversy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(7), pages 1043-1062, July.
    18. Humlum, Maria Knoth & Morthorst, Marius Opstrup & Thingholm, Peter Rønø, 2024. "Sibling spillovers and the choice to get vaccinated: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    19. Arthur Juet, 2023. "The Online Vaccination Debate : The Case of France," Working Papers hal-04053614, HAL.
    20. Qian, Mengcen & Chou, Shin-Yi & Lai, Ernest K., 2020. "Confirmatory bias in health decisions: Evidence from the MMR-autism controversy," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:41:y:2021:i:5:p:550-558. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.