Local infectious disease experience influences vaccine refusal rates: a natural experiment.

ABSTRACT: Vaccination has been critical to the decline in infectious disease prevalence in recent centuries. Nonetheless, vaccine refusal has increased in recent years, with complacency associated with reductions in disease prevalence highlighted as an important contributor. We exploit a natural experiment in Glasgow at the beginning of the twentieth century to investigate whether prior local experience of an infectious disease matters for vaccination decisions. Our study is based on smallpox surveillance data and administrative records of parental refusal to vaccinate their infants. We analyse variation between administrative units of Glasgow in cases and deaths from smallpox during two epidemics over the period 1900-1904, and vaccine refusal following its legalization in Scotland in 1907 after a l

SUBMITTER: Angelopoulos K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9890117 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature