Parents’ Experience and Views of Vaccinating Their Child against Influenza at Primary School and at the General Practice

The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of parents’ experience and views of vaccinating their four to six-year-old child against influenza at school and at the general practice (GP). A cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted between March–June 2016 with parents of children in Reception and Year 1 in four randomly selected schools in Bury, Leicestershire, and Surrey, England. Twenty-five outreach forms were completed and returned, and seven interviews were conducted. Interview transcripts were coded by theme in NVivo (version 11, QSR International Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia). The primary reason parents gave for vaccinating their child was to prevent their child from contracting influenza. Parents’ perceived benefits of vaccinating in schools were to avoid the inconvenience of having to take their child to the GP, and that their child would behave better at school. Parents viewed that accompanying their child for the vaccination at school would undermine the convenience and peer-pressure advantages of the school as a venue. No parents expressed concern about their child being too young to be vaccinated in school. This research suggests that the school is a desirable venue for childhood influenza vaccination, both from the parents’ view and given that influenza vaccination coverage is higher when delivered through schools than GPs.