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‘Supportive, empathetic conversations’ key to easing vaccine hesitancy

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Australian research has uncovered a ‘significant reduction’ in parents’ acceptance of routine childhood vaccines, with trust and safety concerns having the largest impact.
 
According to a new National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance survey, the top six barriers to childhood vaccination reported by parents are:
 

• feeling distressed about vaccinating (32%)
• not trusting information about vaccines from a doctor or nurse (8.8%)
• being unable to afford costs associated with vaccination (8.6%)
• not choosing to prioritise vaccination appointments (8.6%)
• not believing vaccines are safe (8.3%)
• difficulty getting an appointment (7.7%).

 
Around 2000 parents of children under five years of age took part in the 2025 survey, which examined 15 common ‘access’ and ‘acceptance’ barriers to childhood vaccination, with data compared against a 2024 sample.
 
According to the research, there has been a ‘significant reduction in parents’ acceptance of routine childhood vaccines compared to 2024’.
 
Some 93.7% reported having kids who were fully vaccinated, 4.1% partially vaccinated and 2.2% completely unvaccinated.
 
Vaccine safety concerns were found to have risen from 6% to 8.3% between 2024 and 2025, with a lack of trust in information from healthcare providers rising from 6.4% to 8.8%.
 
Being unable to afford costs associated with vaccination dropped from 11% in 2024 to 8.6% in 2025, and difficulty traveling to vaccination appointments reduced from 5.2% to 2.9%. Feeling distressed about vaccinating lowered from 60% to 32%.
 
Study lead, Dr Jess Kaufman, from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), said the findings reflect an emerging shift in parental attitudes.
 
‘Compared to last year, we’re seeing an increase in concerns about vaccine safety and a drop in trust in healthcare providers,’ she said.
 
‘While access issues are still relevant, reduced vaccine confidence is now a stronger influence on whether children receive their vaccinations on time.’
 
Dr Kaufman said parents still face practical challenges, such as vaccine costs and getting to appointments, however these are no longer the main drivers of missed or delayed childhood vaccinations.
 
‘The greater challenge now is rebuilding trust and ensuring supportive, empathetic conversations with healthcare providers who can respond to parents’ concerns.’

Senior author, Professor Margie Danchin, adds that vaccine-related messaging from the US may be contributing to shifts in vaccine confidence.
 
‘In the last year, parents reported hearing increasingly negative sentiment about vaccines, including from the current US administration,’ she said.
 
‘This shows that trust in vaccine safety and healthcare providers can be eroded by global factors, not just local information.’
 
To understand why some children are not vaccinated at all, the study compared barriers for parents of unvaccinated children with parents of up-to-date children.
 
The difference in acceptance barriers between these two parent groups was found to have ‘significantly increased in the 17-month interval between surveys, especially for lack of trust in the information provided by their doctor or nurse and belief that vaccines are unsafe’.
 
Compared with parents of up‑to‑date children, parents of partially vaccinated kids were far more likely to report:
 

• negative beliefs about vaccine safety (54.9% vs 4.7%)
• lack of trust in vaccine information from a doctor or nurse (50.9% vs 5.4%)
• choosing not to prioritise vaccination over other things (46.4% vs 5.6%).

 
Among parents of unvaccinated children, differences in views to those parents of up-to-date children were even more pronounced, with top concerns being:
 

• negative beliefs about vaccine safety (88.3% vs 4.7%)
• belief that vaccinating does not protect others (84.3% vs 3.1%)
• lack of intention to vaccinate (82.4% vs 1.9%)

 
Study investigator, Dr Maryke Steffens, said this partially vaccinated group presents a key opportunity for early intervention.
 
‘These findings reinforce the need for serial monitoring of parents’ concerns about vaccination to support tailored approaches for children who are missing some vaccinations,’ she said.
 
‘These findings offer essential information to guide strategies and interventions, from community-led initiatives to policy and program implementation, that support parents’ decision‑making and help reduce the impact of mis‑ and disinformation, as outlined in the recently released National Immunisation Strategy.
 
‘We also need to continue efforts to make services convenient and affordable.’
 
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Childhood vaccination immunisation vaccination hesitancy vaccines

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