Barriers and facilitators of childhood flu vaccination: the views of parents in North East England

AIM: The aim of this study was to complete a descriptive qualitative investigation of parents’ perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to flu vaccination for pre-school children. SUBJECT AND METHOD: Participants were recruited through various communication channels to maximize sample variation. Invitations to participate in the study were sent to members of the Newcastle University Parent Network and to parents who had participated in previous research conducted at Newcastle University. Twelve participants (six with vaccinated children, six whose children were not vaccinated) took part in a semi-structured interview via Zoom. Transcripts were coded using Nvivo 12 and data were thematically analyzed using the COM-B model of health behavior change. RESULTS: Participants whose children were not vaccinated against flu nonetheless generally held favourable views of vaccination and reported low concern about side-effects. Barriers involved a combination of internal and external factors, mainly a lack of convenient access to vaccination opportunities and flu vaccination being a low priority for busy parents. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that socioeconomic status, which is known to influence other vaccination behaviors, may influence uptake of the flu vaccine in this population. Inconvenient vaccination opportunities and a lack of awareness of the need to vaccinate are major barriers to uptake for some parents. The finding that belief that flu vaccination is a civic responsibility is a new contribution to the literature. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10389-022-01695-2.