# Characterizing parental beliefs to support optimization of vaccine introduction

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $96,636

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The number of vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization for every country to include in
government-sponsored childhood vaccination programs has rapidly increased over the past fifteen years,
although there is little research regarding the best approach to new vaccine introduction into a population that
may be unfamiliar with the specific disease prevented. However, the circumstances surrounding the initial
rollout of a vaccine may exert a lasting impact on perceptions of the vaccine and the disease prevented (e.g.,
human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake is extremely low more than ten years after its introduction in the
US). This mentored training program will build upon my strong educational base in epidemiology, and will help
me develop skills in decision and implementation sciences to reach my long-term goals: to understand how
attitudes towards vaccines change over time as more vaccines become available; and to develop interventions
that can effectively minimize distrust when a vaccine is newly introduced into a population. The training
program in this grant will familiarize me with relevant methodological approaches; I will gain expertise in (1)
developing health messages, (2) researching people’s preferences for health care interventions, (3)
understanding governmental perspectives on vaccine adoption, and (4) managing complex international
studies. The research goal of this proposal utilizes this training regimen to characterize how the inherent
characteristics of a vaccine-preventable disease (as presented during vaccine introduction) affect the valuation
of a specific vaccine and the entire vaccination program. Data sources include a longitudinal study of parents
from Shanghai and national surveys from China and the US. Specifically, I will (1) measure changes in the risk
perception of several vaccine-preventable diseases before and after the vaccine is publicly funded, (2)
characterize preferences for vaccine profile and vaccination program attributes during vaccine introduction,
and (3) examine how the framing of HPV vaccination across several dimensions affects willingness to receive
it. This proposal will generate pilot data to support a future R01 grant, which will test the effectiveness of
systemic- and provider-level activities and interventions on the uptake of HPV vaccine while also aiming to
reduce vaccine hesitancy. Ideally, the adoption of new vaccines in China accompanying the expansion of their
government sponsored childhood vaccination program can avoid the pitfalls experienced in other countries
with new vaccine introduction, and in turn inform vaccine introduction strategies in the US. This grant proposal
is supported by an advisory team comprising Dr. Matthew Boulton—a physician-epidemiologist with expertise
in childhood immunization and the control of vaccine-preventable diseases; Professor Lisa Prosser—an
interdisciplinary health policy researcher with a research focus on vaccine decision-making...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9828773
- **Project number:** 5K01AI137123-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Abram Luther Wagner
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $96,636
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-12-01 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9828773

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9828773, Characterizing parental beliefs to support optimization of vaccine introduction (5K01AI137123-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9828773. Licensed CC0.

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