Vaccine criticism on Turkish websites between 2017-2018: A descriptive analysis

Objective: This study aimed to quantify the content and design attributes of Turkish vaccine critical websites and list the arguments used between 2017 and 2018 when reportedly 23000 families refused childhood vaccines. Methods: Websites were screened by two researchers using Google, between October 30-November 23, 2017. Every researcher screened 30 results for every word query. Exclusion criteria were implemented based on Wolfe’s (2002) and Kata’s (2010) research. A third researcher acted as a referee and produced a final list on February 04, 2018. The websites were analyzed between April 2-August 28, 2018 according to the criteria developed in Kata’s study. The criteria contained 50 items under content and design headings. Results: Most of the resultant 16 websites were not vaccine specific and transmitted already available information. The criteria searched were generally less frequent in Turkish websites than in English and French websites. Criticism of biomedicine, superiority of alternative medicine, sharing of personal stories and use of imagery had low presence. Commercialization was observed less and religious reasons were observed higher in Turkish websites. Websites that supported religious tenets were usually about halal food and used American anti-vaccine websites as resources. Conclusion: Turkish vaccine critical websites referring to foreign resources were usually less developed than their foreign counterparts. Network analysis of vaccine critical websites would yield more in-depth knowledge of the relationship between them. Ministry of Health should invest more in the Web, specifically targeting its response according to the criteria available in vaccine critical websites