NSF-SSRC: Reducing Vaccine Hesitancy Through Interactive Decision Aids

犹豫是否接种安全疫苗是一个长期存在的问题，早在COVID-19和近年来麻疹疫情激增之前就存在了。对疫苗犹豫最有效的干预措施包括与可以解决个人问题的值得信赖的医生进行咨询。不幸的是，这种方法是耗时的，昂贵的，并依赖于公民有现成的可信赖的初级保健医生。该项目开发了一个在线的，个性化的基于视频的决策辅助工具，将帮助人们通过更好地了解疫苗的风险和益处，它们如何工作以及它们是如何开发的来做出关于疫苗的决定。该项目使用认知科学的思想和方法来创建并不断改进交互式视频模块。由此产生的决策援助是在英语和西班牙语两个版本，并有希望成为一个重要的新工具，为公共卫生疫苗education.Methods可视化和沟通的风险已经得到了相当大的关注，在风险认知的研究，但还没有系统地测试规模在现实世界中的健康相关的决策问题。该项目的主要目的是迭代测试和开发一个单独定制的基于视频的决策辅助解决疫苗犹豫，使用风险感知，疫苗犹豫和过程可视化文献的最佳实践。第二个目的是测试风险和数据可视化方法的有效性，以增加对与复杂的现实世界决策问题相关的科学概念的理解，并测试这种理解与现实世界决策结果之间的联系。该项目正在使用一种有效的数据增量方法，通过在随机试验中不断测试替代视频/互动内容和格式，以经验指导进行改进。至关重要的是，数据收集包括与参与者跟进，以评估作为决策辅助条件的函数的实际疫苗吸收。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Hesitancy to take safe vaccines is a long-standing problem that predates COVID-19 and the outbreaks of measles surging in recent years. Some of the most effective interventions for vaccine hesitancy involve counseling sessions with trusted physicians who can address individual concerns. Unfortunately, such approaches are time consuming, costly, and depend on citizens having ready access to trusted primary care physicians. This project develops an online, individually-tailored video-based decision aid that will help people make decisions about vaccines that are informed by a better understanding of their risks and benefits, how they work, and how they are developed. The project is using ideas and methods from cognitive science to create and continually improve the interactive video modules. The resulting decision aid is available in both English and Spanish versions and has the promise of being an important new tool for public health vaccine education.Methods for visualizing and communicating risk have received considerable attention in studies of risk perception but have not been systematically tested at scale in the context of a real-world health-related decision problems. The primary aim of this project is to iteratively test and develop an individually-tailored video-based decision aid addressing vaccine hesitancy, using best practices from the risk perception, vaccine hesitancy, and process visualization literatures. A secondary aim is to test the efficacy of risk and data visualization methods for increasing the understanding of scientific concepts relevant to a complex real-world decision problem, and to test the link between that understanding and real-world decision outcomes. The project is using a data efficient, incremental method of empirically guided refinement by continuously testing alternative video/interactive contents and formats in randomized trials. Crucially, the data collection includes following up with participants to assess actual vaccine uptake as a function of the decision aid conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.