Optimizing Communication on HPV Vaccination to Parents of 11- to 14-Year-Old Adolescents in France: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

BACKGROUND: With the aim to optimize communication during HPV vaccination campaigns in France, we elicited parental preferences around HPV vaccination. METHODS: We conducted a single-profile discrete choice experiment (DCE) among parents of 11- to 14-year-old middle-school pupils, who completed an anonymous, self-administered, internet-based questionnaire during 2020-2021. The DCE comprised five attributes (vaccine-preventable disease, justification of optimal age, information on safety, indirect protection and coverage) of vaccination against an unnamed disease that were presented to respondents in ten choice tasks, or scenarios. We use fixed effect logit models to estimate attribute weights on theoretical vaccine acceptance, and random effect linear regression to estimate attribute coefficients on vaccine eagerness (decision and decision certainty). We estimated marginal effects of attributes on expected vaccine acceptance. RESULTS: Vaccination scenarios were accepted by 55.6-89.2% of the 1291 participants. The largest marginal effects on expected vaccine acceptance in the full sample arose from prevention of cancer versus genital warts (+ 11.3 percentage points); from a "severe side effect suspicion that was not scientifically confirmed" versus a statement about "more benefits than risks" (+ 8.9 percentage points), and information on 80% vaccine coverage in neighbouring countries versus on "insufficient coverage" (+ 4.2 percentage points). Explaining the early age of vaccination by sexual debut had a strong negative impact among French monolingual parents with lower education level (vs age-independent, OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.27-0.86), but not other socio-economic groups. After removing low-quality responses (unvaried certainty and short questionnaire completion), among serial non-demanders with children not vaccinated against HPV, only disease elimination impacted vaccine eagerness positively (coefficient 0.54, 0.06-1.02). DISCUSSION: Using DCEs to elicit parents' preferences around communication messages, notably on cancer prevention, vaccine coverage and information about vaccine safety, could help to optimize HPV vaccination promotion efforts.

Are the 7C psychological antecedents associated with COVID-19 vaccine behaviours beyond intentions? A cross-sectional study on at-least-one-dose and up-to-date vaccination status, and uptake speed among adults in France.

BACKGROUND: Widely documented psychological antecedents of vaccination are confidence in vaccines, complacency, convenience, calculation, collective responsibility (5C model) with the recent addition of confidence in the wider system and social conformism. While the capacity of these seven antecedents (7C) to explain variance in COVID-19 vaccine intentions has been previously documented, we study whether these factors also are associated with vaccine behaviours, beyond intentions. METHODS: From February to June 2022, we recruited a sample of adults in France, including persons with notified recent SARS-CoV-2 infection, along with relatives and randomly selected non-infected persons. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires assessing COVID-19 vaccination history and the 7C antecedents. We defined vaccination behaviours as three outcomes: at-least-one-dose vaccine status by 2022 (N = 49,019), up-to-date vaccination status (N = 46,566), and uptake speed of first dose (N = 25,998). We conducted multivariable logistic regressions and Cox models. RESULTS: Among the 49,019 participants, 95.0% reported receipt of at least one dose and 89.8% were up to date with recommendations. All 7C antecedents were significantly associated with the outcomes, although effects were weaker for up-to-date vaccination status and uptake speed. The strongest effects (most vs. least vaccine-favourable attitude level, at-least-one-dose vaccination status) were observed for collective responsibility (OR: 14.44; 95%CI: 10.72-19.45), calculation (OR: 10.29; 95%CI: 7.53-14.05), and confidence in the wider system (OR: 8.94; 95%CI: 6.51-12.27). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that the 7C not only explain vaccine intention, but also vaccine behaviours, and underpins the importance of developing vaccine promotion strategies considering the 7C antecedents.

Can physicians and schools mitigate social inequalities in human papillomavirus vaccine awareness, uptake and vaccination intention among adolescents? A cross-sectional study, France, 2021 to 2022.

BackgroundIn France, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage varies across socioeconomic levels.AimWe aimed at assessing HPV vaccine awareness, uptake and vaccination intention among adolescents in France.MethodsIn a cluster-randomised study, 13-15-year-old students in 61 French middle schools completed a web-based questionnaire. We used multivariable logistic regression to evaluate determinants of HPV vaccine awareness, self-reported uptake and vaccination intention among unvaccinated students and interaction terms to explore effects of visits to family physician and remembering school lessons on vaccination. The French deprivation index of school municipalities served as proxy for socioeconomic levels.ResultsAmong 6,992 participants, awareness was significantly associated with parental education (odds ratio (OR) = 0.82; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.71-0.95), language spoken at home (OR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.52-0.66) and deprivation level (OR = 0.57; 95% CI: 0.44-0.71), regardless of physician visit or school lessons. Vaccine uptake was associated with parental education without a recent physician visit (OR = 0.31; 95% CI: 0.16-0.59, vs OR = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.52-0.78 with a visit, interaction p = 0.045). Vaccination intention among unvaccinated was associated with deprivation level (moderate-low vs low) among students not remembering school lessons on vaccination (OR = 0.17; 95% CI: 0.05-0.62, vs OR = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.51-1.67 remembering school lessons, interaction p = 0.022). Parental education was associated with vaccination intention among students reporting a physician visit (OR = 0.41; 95% CI: 0.26-0.64 vs OR = 1.05; 95% CI: 0.50-2.20 without a visit, interaction p = 0.034).ConclusionOur results suggest that healthcare and school could promote vaccination and mitigate social inequalities in HPV vaccination coverage.

Psychometric validation of a 7C-model of antecedents of vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers, parents and adolescents in France.

Support for vaccine decision-making requires a tailored approach taking into account psychological antecedents of vaccine acceptance. We aimed at validating an extended 7C-model of antecedents in three different target population groups (healthcare workers [n = 3870], parents [n = 2002] and adolescents [n = 7118]) and two vaccinations (COVID-19, HPV) in France. We performed a secondary analysis of questionnaires collecting sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes and knowledge on vaccination, and vaccine status and intention. We used standard psychometric techniques to validate a first and second order latent structure, and evaluated their association with vaccine intentionality in three levels (refusal, indecision, acceptance). In all populations, the 7C-model yielded a very good model fit (CFI and TLI > 0.90) and, in comparison with non-nested and nested 5C-models, significantly improved the model performance (Ω2, p < 0.05; Wald's test, p < 0.05). The resulting vaccine readiness score was strongly associated with vaccine intentionality (acceptance vs. indecision: ßHCW = 2.93, ßParents = 2.41, ßAdolescents = 1.34; refusal vs. indecision: ßHCW = - 1.68, ßParents = - 0.16, ßAdolescents = - 0.89.). The addition of confidence in the system and social conformism among antecedents of vaccine acceptance allowed a finer understanding of the continuum moving from refusal to indecision and acceptance. To work with these antecedents in interventional research, appropriate questionnaire items should be developed for various vaccines and target populations.

Preventing autonomy loss with multicomponent geriatric interventions: A resource-saving strategy? Evidence from the SPRINT-T study.

Background: The objective of healthy aging strategies is to support interventions targeting autonomy loss prevention, with the assumption that these interventions are likely to be efficient by simultaneously improving clinical outcomes and saving costs. Methods: We compare the economic impact of two interventions targeting frailty prevention in older European populations: a multicomponent intervention including physical activity monitoring, nutrition management, information and communications technology use and a relatively simple healthy aging lifestyle education program based on a series of workshops. Our sample includes 1,519 male and female participants from 11 European countries aged 70 years or older. Our econometric model explores trends in several outcomes depending on intervention receipt and frailty status at baseline. Results: Implementing a multicomponent intervention among frail older people does not lead to a lower use of care and do not prevent quality of life losses associated with aging. However, it impacts older people's sense of priorities and interest in the future. We find no statistically significant differences between the two interventions, suggesting that the implementation of a multicomponent intervention may not be the most efficient strategy. The impact of the interventions does not differ by frailty status at baseline. Conclusions: Our results show the need to implement healthy aging strategies that are more focused on people's interests.

Impact of a COVID-19 certificate requirement on vaccine uptake pattern and intention for future vaccination. A cross-sectional study among French adults.

BACKGROUND: In August 2021, France enacted a COVID-19 certificate requirement (vaccination/recovery/test) to access specific services, with mandates for professional groups. We evaluated the impact of this incentive-coercive policy in terms of vaccine uptake equality, future vaccine intention and confidence in authorities' crisis management. METHODS: In late August 2021, a representative sample of adults (18-75 years) completed an internet-based questionnaire. We classified vaccinated participants by stated reasons for vaccination and estimated adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) using multivariable Poisson regression. Counterfactual vaccine status assumed non-vaccination of those vaccinated for the certificate. We analysed the association of free-text testimonial themes with level of confidence in authorities. RESULTS: Among 972 participants, 85.7% were vaccinated or intended vaccination: 3.6% only for certificate/mandate, 17.7% mainly for certificate/mandate plus other reasons, and 64.4% mainly for other reasons. In the counterfactual situation, vaccine uptake would have been significantly more likely among older vs. younger participants (aPR = 1.35) and among those with moderate-high vs. low levels of confidence in authorities for COVID-19 crisis management (aPR = 2.04). In the observed situation, confidence was the only significant determinant of vaccine status (moderate-high vs. low, aPR = 1.39). Among those without genuine motivation for vaccination, professionally active persons were more likely to have ceded to the certificate requirement (aPR = 3.76). Those vaccinated only for the certificate were more likely to express future COVID-19 vaccine intention than unvaccinated persons (aPR = 6.41). Themes significantly associated with lower confidence were criticism of morality (aPR = 1.76) and poor communication by the authorities (aPR = 1.66). CONCLUSION: The incentive-coercive policy has reduced the negative association of vaccine status with younger age and low confidence in authorities, but may have reinforced isolation of professionally inactive persons. The requirement did not negatively impact future COVID-19 vaccine intention. Future vaccine-incentive policies should pay special attention to populations with low levels of confidence in authorities.

Informing a target product profile for rapid tests to identify HBV-infected pregnant women with high viral loads: a discrete choice experiment with African healthcare workers.

BACKGROUND: Elimination of mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) requires infant immunoprophylaxis and antiviral prophylaxis for pregnant women with high viral loads. Since real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), a gold standard for assessing antiviral eligibility, is neither accessible nor affordable for women living in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) detecting alternative HBV markers may be needed. To inform future development of the target product profile (TPP) for RDTs to identify highly viremic women, we used a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and elicited preference and trade-off of healthcare workers (HCW) in Africa between the following four attributes of fictional RDTs: price, time-to-result, diagnostic sensitivity, and specificity. METHODS: Through an online questionnaire survey, we asked participants to indicate their preferred test from a set of two RDTs in seven choice tasks with varying levels of the four attributes. We used mixed multinomial logit models to quantify the utility gain or loss generated by each attribute. We attempted to define minimal and optimal criteria for test attributes that can satisfy ≥ 70% and ≥ 90% of HCWs, respectively, as an alternative to RT-PCR. RESULTS: A total of 555 HCWs from 41 African countries participated. Increases in sensitivity and specificity generated significant utility and increases in cost and time-to-result generated significant disutility. The size of the coefficients for the highest attribute levels relative to the reference levels were in the following order: sensitivity (ß = 3.749), cost (ß = -2.550), specificity (ß = 1.134), and time-to-result (ß = -0.284). Doctors cared most about test sensitivity, while public health practitioners cared about cost and midwives about time-to-result. For an RDT with 95% specificity, costing 1 US$, and yielding results in 20 min, the minimally acceptable test sensitivity would be 82.5% and the optimally acceptable sensitivity would be 87.5%. CONCLUSIONS: African HCWs would prefer an RDT with the following order of priority: higher sensitivity, lower cost, higher specificity, and shorter time-to-result. The development and optimization of RDTs that can meet the criteria are urgently needed to scale up the prevention of HBV mother-to-child transmission in LMICs.

[Analyzing and comparing healthy aging in France and OECD countries based on a new physiological age measure]. / Le bien-vieillir en France et dans les pays de l'OCDE - Une analyse à partir d'une nouvelle mesure d'âge physiologique.

We introduce a new individual measure of healthy aging on a sample of more than 39,000 individuals and compare the results for France with 11 other European countries and the United States. Our healthy aging measure is based on the discrepancy between the calendar age of populations with their estimated physiological age, which corresponds to a measure of age adjusted for the effects of comorbidities and functional health. France is ranked in the lower middle of our healthy aging scale, with the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands), Switzerland and Greece being ahead. Economic capital has a strong impact on the estimated physiological age and on healthy aging trajectories. Socioeconomic inequalities are particularly marked in France as well as in Italy and the United States. The generosity of long-term care policies seems to be positively associated with the level of healthy aging of the populations. More work is required to identify the drivers of healthy aging among individuals living in OECD countries.

Title: Le bien-vieillir en France et dans les pays de l'OCDE - Une analyse à partir d'une nouvelle mesure d'âge physiologique. Abstract: Dans cette synthèse, nous relatons les résultats d'une étude utilisant une nouvelle mesure individuelle du bien-vieillir. À partir d'un échantillon de plus de 39 000 individus, nous avons comparé les résultats de la France avec ceux observés dans 11 autres pays européens et aux États-Unis. Le bien-vieillir a été estimé en comparant l'âge calendaire des populations et leur âge physiologique, qui correspond à une mesure de l'âge ajustée des effets liés à la présence de comorbidités et à la santé fonctionnelle. Sur notre échelle de bien-vieillir, la France se situe dans le milieu bas du classement des pays. Elle est devancée par les pays nordiques (Danemark, Suède, Pays-Bas), la Suisse et la Grèce. Le capital économique a un fort impact sur l'âge physiologique estimé et sur les trajectoires de bien-vieillir. Les inégalités socio-économiques sont particulièrement marquées en France, comme en Italie et aux États-Unis.

What motivates adults to accept influenza vaccine? An assessment of incentives, ease of access, messaging, and sources of information using a discrete choice experiment.

Seasonal influenza vaccination rates remain low, and contribute to preventable influenza cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the US. While numerous interventions have been implemented to increase vaccine uptake, there is a need to determine which interventions contribute most to vaccine willingness, particularly among age groups with vaccination rates that have plateaued at suboptimal levels. This study aimed to quantify the relative effect of multiple interventions on vaccine willingness to receive influenza vaccine in three age groups using a series of hypothetical situations with different behavioral interventions. We assessed the relative impact of four categories of interventions: source of vaccine messages, type of vaccination messages, vaccination incentives, and ease of vaccine access using a discrete choice experiment. Within each category, we investigated the role of four different attributes to measure their relative contribution to willingness to be vaccinated by removing one option from each of the intervention categories. Among the 1,763 Minnesota residents who volunteered for our study, participants expressed vaccine willingness in over 80% of the scenarios presented. Easy access to drop-in vaccination sites had the greatest impact on vaccine willingness in all age groups. Among the younger age group, small financial incentives also contributed to high vaccine willingness. Our results suggest that public health programs and vaccination campaigns may improve their chances of successfully increasing vaccine willingness if they offer interventions preferred by adults, including facilitating convenient access to vaccination and offering small monetary incentives, particularly for young adults.

Preferences for COVID-19 epidemic control measures among French adults: a discrete choice experiment.

In this stated preferences study, we describe for the first time French citizens' preferences for various epidemic control measures, to inform longer-term strategies and future epidemics. We used a discrete choice experiment in a representative sample of 908 adults in November 2020 (before vaccination was available) to quantify the trade-off they were willing to make between restrictions on the social, cultural, and economic life, school closing, targeted lockdown of high-incidence areas, constraints to directly protect vulnerable persons (e.g., self-isolation), and measures to overcome the risk of hospital overload. The estimation of mixed logit models with correlated random effects shows that some trade-offs exist to avoid overload of hospitals and intensive care units, at the expense of stricter control measures with the potential to reduce individuals' welfare. The willingness to accept restrictions was shared to a large extent across subgroups according to age, gender, education, vulnerability to the COVID-19 epidemic, and other socio-demographic or economic variables. However, individuals who felt at greater risk from COVID-19, and individuals expressing high confidence in the governmental management of the health and economic crisis, more easily accepted all these restrictions. Finally, we compared the welfare impact of alternative strategies combining different epidemic control measures. Our results suggest that policies close to a targeted lockdown or with medically prescribed self-isolation were those satisfying the largest share of the population and achieving high gain in average welfare, while average welfare was maximized by the combination of all highly restrictive measures. This illustrates the difficulty in making preference-based decisions on restrictions.

Do not PIMP my nursing home ride! The impact of Potentially Inappropriate Medications Prescribing on residents' emergency care use.

Nursing home residents often are poly-medicated, which increases their risks of receiving potentially inappropriate medications. This problem has become a major public health issue in many countries, and in particular in France. Indeed, high uses of potentially inappropriate medication prescriptions can lead to adverse effects that are likely to increase emergency room (ER) visits. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the causal relationship between the amount of use of potentially inappropriate medications and ER visit risks among nursing homes residents. Indeed, this question is subject to endogeneity issues due to omitted variables that simultaneously affect inappropriate medications prescriptions and ER use. We take advantage of the IDEM Randomized Clinical Trial (Systematic Dementia Screening by Multidisciplinary Team Meetings in Nursing Homes for Reducing Emergency Department Transfers) to overcome that issue. Indeed, randomization in the IDEM intervention group created exogenous variations in potentially inappropriate prescriptions, and was thus used as an instrument. Using an instrumental variable model, we show that over a 12-month period, a 1% increase in the share of potentially inappropriate medications spending in total medication spending leads to a 5.7 percentage point increase in residents' ER use risks (p < 0.001). This effect is robust to various model specifications. Moreover, the intensity of this correlation persists over an 18-month period. While tackling wasteful spending has become a priority in most countries, our results have important policy implications. Indeed, reducing potentially inappropriate medication spending in nursing homes should be a key component of value-based aging policies, which objectives are to reduce inefficient care, and provide health care services centered in people's interest.

Where Are Populations Aging Better? A Global Comparison of Healthy Aging Across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Countries.

OBJECTIVES: Global comparisons and large samples are needed to inform policy makers about aging trends among people aged older than 60 years. Using harmonized data gathered from the Gateway to Global Aging data, we introduce a new framework to measure healthy aging across 13 OECD countries. METHODS: First, we developed an original measure of physiological age (PA), that is, a measure of age weighted for the influence of frailty, activities of daily living limitations, and comorbidities. Second, we compared healthy aging measures across 13 countries based on a ranking of the countries according to the discrepancy between estimated PA and chronological age (CA). Third, we explored the socioeconomic factors associated with healthy aging. RESULTS: We found a strong correlation between our PA measure and biological age. Italy, Israel, and the United States are the 3 countries where PA is the highest (independent of CA), thus indicating aging in poor health. In contrast, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark have much lower PA than CA, thus indicating healthy aging. Finally, the PA-CA discrepancy is higher among poorer, less educated, and single older individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Countries with higher PA need to implement or reinforce healthy aging measures and target the disadvantaged populations.

Study protocol comparing the ethical, psychological and socio-economic impact of personalised breast cancer screening to that of standard screening in the "My Personal Breast Screening" (MyPeBS) randomised clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: The MyPeBS study is an ongoing randomised controlled trial testing whether a risk-stratified breast cancer screening strategy is non-inferior, or eventually superior, to standard age-based screening at reducing incidence of stage 2 or more cancers. This large European Commission-funded initiative aims to include 85,000 women aged 40 to 70 years, without prior breast cancer and not previously identified at high risk in six countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Israel, Spain, UK). A specific work package within MyPeBS examines psychological, socio-economic and ethical aspects of this new screening strategy. It compares women's reported data and outcomes in both trial arms on the following issues: general anxiety, cancer-related worry, understanding of breast cancer screening strategy and information-seeking behaviour, socio-demographic and economic characteristics, quality of life, risk perception, intention to change health-related behaviours, satisfaction with the trial. METHODS: At inclusion, 3-months, 1-year and 4-years, each woman participating in MyPeBS is asked to fill online questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses, subgroup comparisons and analysis of variations over time will be performed with appropriate tests to assess differences between arms. Multivariate regression models will allow modelling of different patient reported data and outcomes such as comprehension of the information provided, general anxiety or cancer worry, and information seeking behaviour. In addition, a qualitative study (48 semi-structured interviews conducted in France and in the UK with women randomised in the risk-stratified arm), will help further understand participants' acceptability and comprehension of the trial, and their experience of risk assessment. DISCUSSION: Beyond the scientific and medical objectives of this clinical study, it is critical to acknowledge the consequences of such a paradigm shift for women. Indeed, introducing a risk-based screening relying on individual biological differences also implies addressing non-biological differences (e.g. social status or health literacy) from an ethical perspective, to ensure equal access to healthcare. The results of the present study will facilitate making recommendations on implementation at the end of the trial to accompany any potential change in screening strategy. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Study sponsor: UNICANCER. My personalised breast screening (MyPeBS). CLINICALTRIALS: gov (2018) available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03672331 Contact: Cécile VISSAC SABATIER, PhD, + 33 (0)1 73 79 77 58 ext + 330,142,114,293, contact@mypebs.eu.

Impact of formal care consumption on informal care use in Europe: What is happening at the beginning of dependency?

Little is known about care use decisions at the beginning of the disability process, when older people are vulnerable. This article investigates the impact of formal care (FC) consumption on informal care (IC) utilization in Europe in a population of frail older people. We use data from the Sarcopenia and Physical fRailty IN older people: multi-componenT Treatment strategies (SPRINTT) study, which involves a sample of 1515 elderly (70+) people surveyed in 11 European countries. We explore the impact of home-based FC use on IC use at the extensive and intensive margins. The use of FC is instrumented with a dichotomous variable reproducing the eligibility criteria for public home-based FC in each country. We show that receiving home-based FC positively and significantly affects the probability of using IC. Therefore, we conclude that home-based FC and IC are complementary at the beginning of the dependency process.

What drives willingness to receive a new vaccine that prevents an emerging infectious disease? A discrete choice experiment among university students in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: There is a critical need to identify the drivers of willingness to receive new vaccines against emerging and epidemic diseases. A discrete choice experiment is the ideal approach to evaluating how individuals weigh multiple attributes simultaneously. We assessed the degree to which six attributes were associated with willingness to be vaccinated among university students in Uganda. METHODS: We conducted a single-profile discrete choice experiment at Makerere University in 2019. Participants were asked whether or not they would be vaccinated in 8 unique scenarios where attributes varied by disease risk, disease severity, advice for or against vaccination from trusted individuals, recommendations from influential figures, whether the vaccine induced indirect protection, and side effects. We calculated predicted probabilities of vaccination willingness using mixed logistic regression models, comparing health professional students with all other disciplines. FINDINGS: Of the 1576 participants, 783 (49.8%) were health professional students and 685 (43.5%) were female. Vaccination willingness was high (78%), and higher among health students than other students. We observed the highest vaccination willingness for the most severe disease outcomes and the greatest exposure risks, along with the Minister of Health's recommendation or a vaccine that extended secondary protection to others. Mild side effects and recommendations against vaccination diminished vaccination willingness. INTERPRETATION: Our results can be used to develop evidence-based messaging to encourage uptake for new vaccines. Future vaccination campaigns, such as for COVID-19 vaccines in development, should consider acknowledging individual risk of exposure and disease severity and incorporate recommendations from key health leaders.

Vaccine eagerness: A new framework to analyse preferences in single profile discrete choice experiments. Application to HPV vaccination decisions among French adolescents.

Background: We previously conducted a single-profile discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences of adolescents around HPV vaccine communication, finding that only half of participants made variable choices (non-uniform respondents) from which preferences were elicited. In this paper we provide a framework to evaluate post-choice certainty information to elicit preferences even among respondents who uniformly accepted (serial demanders) or refused (serial non-demanders) hypothetical vaccination scenarios. Methods: During an in-class online questionnaire among 1458 French adolescents aged 13-15 years old, we collected certainty levels (0-10) after decisions on nine hypothetical scenarios, including four vaccination attributes: information on vaccine-preventable disease type, on vaccine safety, on potential for indirect protection and on vaccine coverage. We developed a vaccine eagerness scale (ranging from -10 to 10), by combining information on the binary decision (accept vs. refuse the hypothetical vaccine) and the decision certainty level. We used random effects linear regressions to evaluate attributes' impact on vaccine eagerness. Sensitivity analyses were performed taking into account low response quality, assessed as invariant certainty and low response time. Results: Attributes' impact on decision certainty were similar between serial demanders (N = 659) and non-uniform respondents (N = 711): mentioning a positive benefit-risk balance significantly decreased certainty to accept (coefficient -0.93), while information on 80% coverage in other countries (+0.33) and potential for disease elimination (+0.09) increased it. Among serial non-demanders, significant attribute impacts were observed only after exclusion of low-quality responses (N = 31): a potential for disease elimination (coefficient: +0.24) and 80% coverage in other countries (+0.42) significantly increased certainty of refusing vaccination. Combining decision and certainty into a vaccine eagerness indicator allowed analysing preferences in the full sample, including "hesitant" respondents, who were sensitive to the content of the vaccination profile. Conclusion: Choice certainty informs on respondents' preferences in single-profile discrete-choice experiments, in particular among those with uniform responses.

Quantifying healthcare and welfare sector workers' preferences around COVID-19 vaccination: a cross-sectional, single-profile discrete-choice experiment in France.

OBJECTIVES: To analyse preferences around promotion of COVID-19 vaccination among workers in the healthcare and welfare sector in Fance at the start of the vaccination campaign. DESIGN: Single-profile discrete-choice experiment. Respondents in three random blocks chose between accepting or rejecting eight hypothetical COVID-19 vaccination scenarios. SETTING: 4346 healthcare and welfare sector workers in France, recruited through nation-wide snowball sampling, December 2020 to January 2021. OUTCOME: The primary outcomes were the effects of attributes' levels on hypothetical acceptance, expressed as ORs relative to the reference level. The secondary outcome was vaccine eagerness as certainty of decision, ranging from -10 to +10. RESULTS: Among all participants, 61.1% made uniform decisions, including 17.2% always refusing vaccination across all scenarios (serial non-demanders). Among 1691 respondents making variable decisions, a strong negative impact on acceptance was observed with 50% vaccine efficacy (compared with 90% efficacy: OR 0.05, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.06) and the mention of a positive benefit-risk balance (compared with absence of severe and frequent side effects: OR 0.40, 0.34 to 0.46). The highest positive impact was the prospect of safely meeting older people and contributing to epidemic control (compared with no indirect protection: OR 4.10, 3.49 to 4.82 and 2.87, 2.34 to 3.50, respectively). Predicted acceptance was 93.8% for optimised communication on messenger RNA vaccines and 16.0% for vector-based vaccines recommended to ≥55-year-old persons. Vaccine eagerness among serial non-demanders slightly but significantly increased with the prospect of safely meeting older people and epidemic control and reduced with lower vaccine efficacy. DISCUSSION: Vaccine promotion towards healthcare and welfare sector workers who hesitate or refuse vaccination should avoid the notion of benefit-risk balance, while collective benefit communication with personal utility can lever acceptance. Vaccines with limited efficacy will unlikely achieve high uptake.

Optimising HPV vaccination communication to adolescents: A discrete choice experiment.

BACKGROUND: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage in France is below 30%, despite proven effectiveness against HPV infections and (pre-)cancerous cervical lesions. To optimise vaccine promotion among adolescents, we used a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to identify optimal statements regarding a vaccination programme, including vaccine characteristics. METHODS: Girls and boys enrolled in the last two years of five middle schools in three French regions (aged 13-15 years) participated in an in-class cross-sectional self-administered internet-based study. In ten hypothetical scenarios, participants decided for or against signing up for a school-based vaccination campaign against an unnamed disease. Scenarios included different levels of four attributes: the type of vaccine-preventable disease, communication on vaccine safety, potential for indirect protection, and information on vaccine uptake among peers. One scenario was repeated with an added mention of sexual transmission. RESULTS: The 1,458 participating adolescents (estimated response rate: 89.4%) theoretically accepted vaccination in 80.1% of scenarios. All attributes significantly impacted theoretical vaccine acceptance. Compared to a febrile respiratory disease, protection against cancer was motivating (odds ratio (OR) 1.29 [95%-CI 1.09-1.52]), but not against genital warts (OR 0.91 [0.78-1.06]). Compared to risk negation ("vaccine does not provoke serious side effects"), a reference to a positive benefit-risk balance despite a confirmed side effect was strongly dissuasive (OR 0.30 [0.24-0.36]), while reference to ongoing international pharmacovigilance without any scientifically confirmed effect was not significantly dissuasive (OR 0.86 [0.71-1.04]). The potential for indirect protection motivated acceptance among girls but not boys (potential for eliminating the disease compared to no indirect protection, OR 1.57 [1.25-1.96]). Compared to mentioning "insufficient coverage", reporting that ">80% of young people in other countries got vaccinated" motivated vaccine acceptance (OR 1.94 [1.61-2.35]). The notion of sexual transmission did not influence acceptance. CONCLUSION: HPV vaccine communication to adolescents can be tailored to optimise the impact of promotion efforts.

Are long-term care jobs harmful? Evidence from Germany.

Like many OECD countries, Germany is currently facing a shortage of long-term care (LTC) workers. This situation is concerning in the context of the ageing of the German population. A potential reason why Germany fails to recruit and retain LTC workers is that LTC jobs are particularly demanding (physical and psychological strain) which may be harmful to health. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating this effect. This article fills the gap in the literature by exploring to what extent LTC jobs reduce workers' health over time. We estimate a dynamic panel data model on the German Socio-Economic Panel (v.35; 1984-2018), which allows adressing selection issues into occupations. Our paper provides innovative findings on the impact of LTC occupations on workers' health. We confirm that LTC jobs have a negative impact on self-reported health. Our results have strong policy implications: we emphasize the need to provide sufficient assistance to LTC workers, who are at risk of facing more health issues than other workers. This issue is key to increase the attractiveness of LTC jobs and reduce turnover in the LTC workforce.

Health measures and long-term care use in the European frail population.

This paper explores the association between health measures and long-term care (LTC) use in the 70+ old population. We examine how different measures of health-subjective versus objective-predict LTC use, provided either formally or informally. We consider an absolute measure of subjective health, the grade given by the individual to his/her health status, and additionally construct a relative measure capturing the difference between this grade and the average grade given to health by individuals sharing the same characteristics. Conceptually, this difference comes from the perception of the individual, corresponding to both the private health information and the reporting behavior affecting self-rated health. We use the baseline data from the SPRINTT study, an ongoing randomized control trial on 1519 subjects facing physical frailty and sarcopenia (PF&S) in 11 European countries. Our sample population is older than 70 (mean: 79 years) and comprises a majority (71%) of women. Results show that self-rated health indicators correlate to formal care even when objective health measures are included, while it is not the case for informal care. Formal care consumption thus appears to be more sensitive to the individual's perception of health than informal care.