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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted vaccination services and raised the risk of a global resurgence of preventable diseases. We assessed the extent of and reasons for missed or delayed vaccinations (hereafter 'missed') in middle- and high-income countries in the early months of the pandemic., Methods: From May to June 2020, participants completed an online survey on missed vaccination. Analyses separated missed childhood and adult vaccination in middle-and high-income countries., Results: Respondents were 28,429 adults from 26 middle- and high-income countries. Overall, 9% of households had missed a vaccine, and 13% were unsure. More households in middle- than high-income countries reported missed childhood vaccination (7.6% vs. 3.0%) and missed adult vaccination (9.6% vs. 3.4%, both p < .05). Correlates of missed childhood vaccination in middle-income countries included COVID-19 risk factors (respiratory and cardiovascular diseases), younger age, male sex, employment, psychological distress, larger household size, and more children. In high-income countries, correlates of missed childhood vaccination also included immunosuppressive conditions, but did not include sex or household size. Fewer correlates were associated with missed adult vaccination other than COVID-19 risk factors and psychological distress. Common reasons for missed vaccinations were worry about getting COVID-19 at the vaccination clinic (15%) or when leaving the house (11%). Other reasons included no healthcare provider recommendation, clinic closure, and wanting to save services for others., Interpretation: Missed vaccination was common and more prevalent in middle- than high-income countries. Missed vaccination could be mitigated by emphasizing COVID-19 safety measures in vaccination clinics, ensuring free and accessible immunization, and clear healthcare provider recommendations., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest GKS, NG, JL, and KR report consulting fees from the World Health Organization during the conduct of the study. GKS is supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research 2019 Fellowship Award (CIHR MFE 171271) outside the submitted work. NB reports consulting fees for Merck, Novartis, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and World Health Organization. All other authors declare no conflict of interest. Pharmaceutical companies or other agencies were not involved in the funding of this article. The funders of this study played no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of this manuscript., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Children around the world remain under-vaccinated for many reasons. To develop effective vaccine delivery programmes and monitor intervention impact, vaccine programme implementers need to understand reasons for under-vaccination within their local context. The World Health Organization (WHO) Working Group on the Behavioural and Social Drivers of Vaccination (BeSD) is developing standardised tools for assessing childhood vaccine acceptance and uptake that can be used across regions and countries. The tools will include: (1) a validated survey; (2) qualitative interview guides; and (3) corresponding user guidance. We report a user-centred needs assessment of key end-users of the BeSD tools., Methods: Twenty qualitative interviews (Apr-Aug 2019) with purposively sampled vaccine programme managers, partners and stakeholders from UNICEF and WHO country and regional offices. The interviews assessed current systems, practices and challenges in data utilisation and reflections on how the BeSD tools might be optimised. Framework analysis was used to code the interviews., Results: Regarding current practices, participants described a variety of settings, data systems, and frequencies of vaccination attitude measurement. They reported that the majority of data used is quantitative, and there is appetite for increased use of qualitative data. Capacity for conducting studies on social/behavioural drivers of vaccination was high in some jurisdictions and needed in others. Issues include barriers to collecting such data and variability in sources. Reflecting on the tools, participants described the need to explore the attitudes and practices of healthcare workers in addition to parents and caregivers. Participants were supportive of the proposed mixed-methods structure of the tools and training in their usage, and highlighted the need for balance between tool standardisation and flexibility to adapt locally., Conclusions: A user-centred approach in developing the BeSD tools has given valuable direction to their design, bringing the use of behavioural and social data to the heart of programme planning., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: [NS is the director of the London Safety and Training Solutions Ltd, which offers training in patient safety, implementation solutions and human factors to healthcare organisations and the pharmaceutical industry, including Sanofi-MSD and Merck. NS also holds an unrestricted educational research grant by Sanofi Pasteur for the project ‘Social and psychological determinants of vaccination uptake – Linking attitudinal and behavioural data to policy analysis and implementation’, 2021-24. Gillian SteelFisher’s husband is a minority owner of a firm that does consulting work for Eli Lilly. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.]., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy developed a vaccine hesitancy measure, the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS). This scale has the potential to aid in the advancement of research and immunization policy but has not yet been psychometrically evaluated., Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, we collected self-reported survey data from a large national sample of Canadian parents from August to September 2016. An online questionnaire was completed in English or French. We used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to identify latent constructs underlying parents' responses to 10 VHS items (response scale 1-5, with higher scores indicating greater hesitancy). In addition to the VHS, measures included socio-demographics items, vaccine attitudes, parents' human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine decision-making stage, and vaccine refusal., Results: A total of 3779 Canadian parents completed the survey in English (74.1%) or French (25.9%). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure best explained the data, consisting of 'lack of confidence' (M = 1.98, SD = 0.72) and 'risks' (M = 3.07, SD = 0.95). Significant Pearson correlations were found between the scales and related vaccine attitudes. ANOVA analyses found significant differences in the VHS sub-scales by parents' vaccine decision-making stages (p < .001). Independent samples t-tests found that the VHS sub-scales were associated with HPV vaccine refusal and refusing another vaccine (p < .001). Socio-demographic differences in the VHS were found; however, effect sizes were small (η 2  < 0.02)., Conclusions: The VHS was found to have two factors that have construct and criterion validity in identifying vaccine hesitant parents. A limitation of the VHS was few items that loaded on the 'risks' component and a lack of positively and negatively worded items for both components. Based on these results, we suggest modifying the wording of some items and adding items on risk perceptions., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause significant infant morbidity. Little is known about pregnant women's attitudes regarding behavioral strategies and hypothetical vaccination to prevent Zika infections and sequelae., Methods: Pregnant women across the United States (N = 362) completed an online questionnaire regarding attitudes about Zika, including six behavioral prevention strategies (i.e., abstaining from sex, using condoms, not traveling to an area with Zika, their partner not traveling into an area with Zika, using mosquito repellant, wearing long pants and sleeves) and vaccination., Results: Most women (91%) were married/living with the baby's father, 65% were non-Hispanic White, and 71% had been pregnant. Seventy-four percent were worried about Zika, while 30% thought they were knowledgeable about Zika. The mean knowledge score was 5.0 out of 8 (SD = 2.09), and the mean behavioral strategies score was 4.9 out of 12 (SD = 3.7) with a range of 0 (none would be hard to do) to 12 (all would be hard to do). In a multivariable model, having had a sexually transmitted infection, living/traveling in an area with Zika, and worrying about Zika were significantly related to reporting behavioral strategies as hard to do. Seventy-two percent would be willing to be vaccinated. In the multivariable model, living/traveling in an area with Zika, believing they knew a lot about Zika, worrying about Zika, and considering Zika vaccine development as important were significantly associated with willingness to get vaccinated., Conclusions: Pregnant women were worried about Zika, yet had gaps in their factual knowledge. Most women reported they would get vaccinated if a vaccine was available. Pregnant women who reported themselves as vulnerable (being worried, having lived in or traveled to a Zika area) were more likely to view behavioral strategies as hard to do and to accept vaccination., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: The National Advisory Committee on Immunization in Canada recommends human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for females and males (ages 9-26). In Canada, the HPV vaccine is predominantly administered through publicly funded school-based programs in provinces and territories. This research provides an overview of Canadian provincial and territorial school-based HPV vaccination program administration and vaccination rates, and identifies foreseeable policy considerations., Methods: We searched the academic and grey literature and contacted administrators of provincial and territorial vaccination programs to compile information regarding HPV vaccine program administration and vaccination rates in Canada's 13 provincial and territorial jurisdictions., Results: As of October 2016, all 13 Canadian jurisdictions vaccinate girls, and six jurisdictions include boys in school-based publicly funded HPV vaccination programs. Eleven jurisdictions administer the HPV vaccine in a two-dose schedule. The quadrivalent vaccine (HPV4) has been the vaccine predominantly used in Canada; however, the majority of provinces will likely adopt the nonavalent vaccine in the future. According to available data, vaccination uptake among females ranged between 46.7% and 93.9%, while vaccination uptake among males (in programs with available data to date) ranged between 75.0% and 87.4%., Conclusions: Future research and innovation will beneficially inform Canadian jurisdictions when considering whether to administer the nonavalent vaccine, whether to implement a two or one-dose vaccination schedule, and how to improve uptake and rates of completion. The usefulness of standardizing methodologies for collecting and reporting HPV vaccination coverage and implementing a national registry were identified as important priorities., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: HPV vaccination uptake in boys is suboptimal in many jurisdictions, particularly in the absence of publicly funded HPV vaccination programs. Parents represent key decision-makers of HPV vaccination and their HPV vaccine decision-making stage is influenced by multiple psychosocial determinants. Our objective was to assess the relationship between a broad range of psychosocial factors and parents of boys' HPV vaccine decision-making stage., Methods: Data were collected through an online survey from a nationally representative sample of Canadian parents of boys in February (T1) and November 2014 (T2). We assessed a broad number of psychosocial factors including: socio-demographics, health behaviours and validated scales for assessing HPV knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. Parents selected their HPV vaccination adoption stage based on the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM). Multinomial logistic regression was used to test the association between predictors and PAPM stage at T1 and T2., Results: Discussion with a healthcare provider about the HPV vaccine and increased HPV knowledge was associated with increased odds of being in the more advanced PAPM stages. Increased perception of risks in the absence of HPV vaccination, increased perception that others endorse HPV vaccination and positive attitudes related to vaccines in general were associated with increased odds of being in the decided to vaccinate stage. Believing that HPV vaccination is harmful increased, and perceiving the benefits of HPV vaccination decreased the odds of deciding not to vaccinate., Conclusions: This study highlights the psychosocial predictors of the decision-making stage reported by parents regarding HPV vaccination of their sons, that were significant at two time-points. Targeted interventions that consider the impact of the health care provider and address knowledge gaps as well as individual beliefs about benefits, risks, and harms of the HPV vaccine and vaccines in general should be implemented to help parents make better informed decisions that is, to move closer to actual vaccination adoption., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This commentary is a response to a systematic review, recently published in Vaccine, which investigates the effectiveness of educational interventions in increasing uptake of the human papillomavirus vaccine. The systematic review by Fu et al. (2014) enhances the field's understanding of human papillomavirus vaccine interventions; however, their review contains a number of conceptual and methodological limitations. This commentary begins by addressing these limitations. We then address the importance of studying human papillomavirus vaccine interventions in diverse populations, and conclude by making recommendations for future research.