Key findings
- Community-based information or education may improve knowledge of vaccines or vaccine-preventable diseases and probably increases the number of children who get vaccinated
- Community-based information or education may make little or no difference to the involvement of mothers in decision-making about vaccination but may change attitudes in favour of vaccination among parents with young children.
Background
Childhood vaccinations can prevent illness and death, but many children do not get vaccinated. There are a number of reasons for this. One reason may be that families lack knowledge about the diseases that vaccines can prevent, how vaccinations work, or how, where or when to get their children vaccinated. People may also have concerns (or may be misinformed) about the benefits and harms of different vaccines. Giving people information or education so that they can make informed decisions about their health is an important part of all health systems. Vaccine information and education aims to increase people’s knowledge of and change their attitudes to vaccines and the diseases that these vaccines can prevent.