ArticlePLoS currents2015
Vaccine hesitancy: clarifying a theoretical framework for an ambiguous notion.
Article in PLoS currents, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 168 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
168 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Factors that influence caregivers' and adolescents' views and practices regarding human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for adolescents: a qualitative evidence synthesis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of Mpox vaccine acceptance and hesitancy among people living with HIV: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis.AIDS research and therapy · 2025Pooled it
- Barriers and facilitators to vaccination in Latin America: a thematic synthesis of qualitative studies.Cadernos de saude publica · 2024Pooled it
- Factors that influence parents' and informal caregivers' views and practices regarding routine childhood vaccination: a qualitative evidence synthesis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Barriers to childhood immunization in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review.BMC public health · 2020Pooled it
- Factors associated with vaccination intentions and uptake among pregnant women in the UK: A scoping review.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Not Just a Mother's Responsibility: Gender, Care and Institutional Influences in Parental Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia.Sociology of health & illness · 2026Article
- Understanding COVID-19 Vaccination Intention in Japan: The Influence of Individual Social Capital and Personal Beliefs on Vaccination.Vaccines · 2026Article
- A Latent Profile Analysis of Vaccine Decision-Making Among Black Adults in South Central Los Angeles.Vaccines · 2026Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between Susceptibility to Health Misinformation and Vaccine Hesitancy in Poland.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Factors Influencing Influenza Vaccination: A Survey-Based Cross-Sectional Study in the City of Syracuse, Italy.Journal of community health · 2025Article
- Maternal vaccination decision-making in urban and rural Bengaluru, India: A mixed methods study.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Article
- Determinants of vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers in an international multicenter study within the EuCARE project.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Structural equation modeling of factors influencing childhood vaccination in Saudi Arabia.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Revisiting Public Trust and Media Influence During COVID-19 Post-Vaccination Era-Waning of Anxiety and Depression Levels Among Skilled Workers and Students in Serbia.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Childhood Vaccine Hesitancy as an Interaction-Based Phenomenon.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- Infecting minds: socio-contextual drivers of vaccine perceptions and attitudes among young and older adults living in urban and rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Identifying Emerging Drivers and Interventions to Reduce Vaccine Hesitancy Among Long-Term Care Facility Nursing Staff.The Gerontologist · 2025Article
- The Interplay of Politics and Conspiracy Theories in Shaping Vaccine Hesitancy in a Diverse Cultural Setting in Italy.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Under-Vaccination among Marginalized Populations in the United States and Canada: A Scoping Review.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
108 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Today, according to many public health experts, public confidence in vaccines is waning. The term "vaccine hesitancy" (VH) is increasingly used to describe the spread of such vaccine reluctance. But VH is an ambiguous notion and its theoretical background appears uncertain. To clarify this concept, we first review the current definitions of VH in the public health literature and examine its most prominent characteristics. VH has been defined as a set of beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours, or some combination of them, shared by a large and heterogeneous portion of the population and including people who exhibit reluctant conformism (they may either decline a vaccine, delay it or accept it despite their doubts) and vaccine-specific behaviours. Secondly, we underline some of the ambiguities of this notion and argue that it is more a catchall category than a real concept. We also call into question the usefulness of understanding VH as an intermediate position along a continuum ranging from anti-vaccine to pro-vaccine attitudes, and we discuss its qualification as a belief, attitude or behaviour. Thirdly, we propose a theoretical framework, based on previous literature and taking into account some major structural features of contemporary societies, that considers VH as a kind of decision-making process that depends on people's level of commitment to healthism/risk culture and on their level of confidence in the health authorities and mainstream medicine.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.