Individual Preferences for Child and Adolescent Vaccine Attributes: A Systematic Review of the Stated Preference Literature.

backgroundDiscrete choice experiments are increasingly used to assess preferences for vaccines and vaccine service delivery.

objectivesTo synthesize and critically assess the application of discrete choice experiments in childhood/adolescent vaccines, to describe how discrete choice experiments have been applied to understand preferences, and to evaluate the use of discrete choice experiment data to inform estimates of vaccine uptake.

methodsWe conducted a systematic review of six electronic databases. Included studies were discrete choice experiments and conjoint analyses published from 2000 to 2016 related to childhood/adolescent vaccines where respondents were parents, children/adolescents, or service providers. Validity assessment was used to assess study quality and risk of bias.

resultsIn total, 27 articles were included, representing 21 different studies. A majority of articles were published between 2011 and 2016. Vaccines studied included human papillomavirus (24%), influenza (19%), meningococcal vaccines (14%), childhood vaccines (14%), hypothetical vaccines (10%), hepatitis B (5%), and diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (5%). Most studies assessed parent preferences (67%). The most common attributes were risk (24%), degree/duration of protection (21%), and cost (15%). Commonly reported outcome measures were estimates of uptake (33%), willingness-to-pay (22%), and other marginal rates of substitution (14%). Validity assessments yielded high scores overall. Areas of weakness included low response rates, inefficient experimental design, and failure to conduct formative qualitative work and a pilot of the discrete choice experiment.

conclusionThis is the first systematic review of childhood/adolescent vaccine-related discrete choice experiments. In future, special attention should be paid to ensuring that choice context and discrete choice experiment design are compatible to generate reliable estimates of uptake.