STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING VACCINE HESITANCY – A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

The purpose of the systematic review of strategies for addressing vaccine hesitancy is to identify strategies that have been implemented and evaluated across diverse global contexts in an effort to respond to, and manage, issues of vaccine hesitancy. This is to fulfil the requirements of the SAGE working group (WG) dealing with vaccine hesitancy in respect to: a) identifying existing and new activities and strategies relating to vaccines or from other areas that could successfully address vaccine hesitancy; b) identifying strategies that do not work well, and; c) prioritising activities and strategies based on an assessment of their potential impact. These requirements were translated into the following specific objectives: 1. Identify published strategies related to vaccine hesitancy and hesitancy of other health technologies (reproductive health technologies (RHT) were chosen as the additional focus) and provide a descriptive analysis of the findings; 2. Map all evaluated strategies to the SAGE WG “Model of determinants of Vaccine Hesitancy” (Appendix 1) and identify key characteristics; 3. Evaluate relevant evaluated strategies relating to vaccine hesitancy using GRADE (Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation); relevance was informed by the PICO questions defined a priori by the WG, and; 4. Synthesise findings in a manner which aids the design of future interventions and further research