The aim of this project was to measure the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy across Canada and to monitor vaccine hesitancy online using digital detection. A survey tool to identify vaccine hesitant parents was developed and evaluated. An online survey of parents across Canada was performed in order to provide the first national estimates of vaccine hesitancy among Canadian parents. The project demonstrated that although 85% of parents have reported that their child was fully vaccinated, about 25% held vaccine-hesitant attitudes.

Dr. David Buckeridge and his team monitored vaccine hesitancy online using digital detection. A The Vaccine Sentimeter was also used to examine regional patterns of vaccine-related media topics and sentiment in the US and Canada and showed that the vast majority of reports on vaccination were positive or neutral, with most negative reports coming from blogs or other websites.

Team Members:

• Eve Dubé, Project Lead, Université Laval
• Heather MacDougall, University of Waterloo
• Julie Bettinger, University of British Columbia
• François Boucher, Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval
• David Buckeridge, McGill University
• William Fisher, University of Western Ontario
• Arnaud Gagneur, Université de Sherbrooke
• Janice Graham, Dalhousie University
• Maryse Guay, Université de Sherbrooke
• Juliet Guichon, University of Calgary
• Jane Heffernan, York University
• Shannon MacDonald, University of Alberta
• Laurence Monnais, Université de Montréal
• Dat Tran, University of Toronto
• Kumanan Wilson, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
• Holly Witteman, Université Laval