The effects of convenience and quality on the demand for vaccination: Results from a discrete choice experiment

BackgroundVaccination is an effective way to prevent infectious diseases. Most studies analysed people's vaccine decisions, but few studies have analysed the effects of convenience such as immunisation schedule and distance and the quality of vaccination service on vaccination uptake.ObjectiveThe aim of this paper was to investigate adults’ preferences for convenience and quality of vaccination service, calculate the private economic benefit from convenience (vaccination schedule and distance) and quality, and predict the uptake rate for different vaccine scenarios.MethodsIn our study, we interviewed 266 adults in 2 counties of Shandong province in China. The discrete choice experiment (DCE) was employed to analyse the preference for hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination, and a mixed logit model was used to estimate respondent preferences for vaccination attributes included in the DCE.ResultsThe protection rate against hepatitis B (HB), duration of protection, risk of side effects, vaccination cost, schedule, and vaccination sites were proved to influence adults’ preferences for HBV vaccination. The estimated willingness to pay (WTP) for 1 dose schedule instead of 3 doses and for a third-level vaccination site instead of a first-level site was almost equal (19 RMB). However, if the protection duration of the vaccination programme changed from 5 years to 20 years, the adults were willing to pay 35.05 RMB, and WTP for a 99% protection rate instead of a 79% rate was 67.71 RMB. The predicted uptake rate is almost 43% for the base case of HBV vaccination.ConclusionsAdults made trade-offs between vaccination schedules, vaccination sites, and other characteristics of HBV vaccine. The impact of attributes of the vaccine itself, especially protection rate against HB, duration of protection, and risk of side-effects, is more dramatic than convenience and quality of vaccination service.