Attitudes towards mandatory vaccination and sanctions for vaccination refusal

Aims: Investigating attitudes towards mandatory vaccination and sanctions for vaccination refusal in an area with insufficient vaccination coverage may help health authorities to assess which strategies for increasing vaccination coverage are appropriate. This study examines attitudes to vaccine mandates and asks questions regarding what kinds of sanctions could legitimately result from vaccination refusal. It seeks to find out if people's attitudes towards mandates and towards sanctions for vaccination refusal are related to their attitudes to vaccines and the degree of trust they feel towards health care profession-als and health care authorities. The study also discusses how the observed attitudes towards mandates may be related to perceptions of autonomy, responsibility, and equitability. Methods: Data collection was carried out in Finland through an online survey in a region with suboptimal vaccine uptake. Statistical analysis was conducted on a sample of 1101 respondents, using confirmatory factor analysis and structural regression analysis. Results: Persons hold different views on mandates and sanctions. Importantly, the persons who support vaccination mandates and sanctions for vaccination refusal are to a great degree the same people who have positive attitudes to vaccines and high trust in health care professionals and health authorities. Conclusion: Trust is a key factor which has a bearing on people's attitudes towards mandates and sanc-tions for noncompliance. A focus on the reasons for lack of trust, and on how to enhance trust, is a more feasible long-term way (than mandates) to promote large-scale compliance with childhood vaccine pro-grammes in the studied country context. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study investigates attitudes towards mandatory vaccination and sanctions for vaccination refusal, and finds that those who support vaccine mandates and sanctions also have positive attitudes towards vaccines and high trust in healthcare professionals and authorities. Trust is identified as a key factor influencing attitudes towards mandates and sanctions, and the study suggests that enhancing trust is a more feasible long-term approach to promoting compliance with childhood vaccine programs.