Impact of publicly available vaccination rates on parental school and child care choice

Objective: Several states require schools and child cares to report vaccination rates, yet little is known about the impact of these policies. Our objectives were to assess: (1) predicted impact of vaccination rates on school/child care choice, (2) differences between vaccine hesitant and non-hesitant parents, and (3) differences by child's age. Methods: In 2016, a cross-sectional email survey of Colorado mothers with children <= 12 years old assessed value of vaccination rates in the context of school/child care choice. A willingness-to-pay framework measured preference for schools/child cares with different vaccination rates using tradeoff with commute time. Results: Response rate was 42% (679/1630). Twelve percent of respondents were vaccine hesitant. On a scale where 1 is not important at all and 4 is very important parents rated the importance of vaccination rates at 3.08. Respondents (including vaccine-hesitant respondents) would accept longer commutes to avoid schools/child cares with lower vaccination rates. Parents of child-care-age children were more likely to consider vaccination rates important. Conclusions: This study shows parents highly value vaccination rates in the context of school and child care choice. Both hesitant and non-hesitant parents are willing to accept longer commute times to protect their children from vaccine-preventable diseases. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.