[Research Highlights] Clarifying the relationship between parental information-seeking behavior for childhood vaccination and the quality of communication experiences with healthcare professionals

We are pleased to announce that a paper by Aya Saitoh and colleagues from our laboratory has been published in Vaccine, an international academic journal in the field of vaccines.

In this study, we surveyed 2,400 parents of children under 6 years of age in Japan to examine how concerns about childhood vaccination, question-asking behavior toward healthcare professionals, the use of digital/online information as a main information source, and the perceived quality of communication experiences with healthcare professionals were associated with adherence to the vaccination schedule.

The results showed that parents with vaccination-related concerns were more likely to ask healthcare professionals questions, and those who asked questions rated their communication experiences more positively, including the ease of asking questions and the clarity of explanations. In addition, higher perceived quality of communication experiences with healthcare professionals was associated with better adherence to the childhood vaccination schedule. In contrast, question-asking behavior itself and the use of digital/online information as a main information source were not independently associated with schedule adherence after adjustment.

The use of digital/online information as a main information source was also associated with higher perceived quality of communication experiences with healthcare professionals, suggesting that reliable digital information may complement face-to-face consultation.

These findings suggest that, in Japan, where cultural norms may make parents hesitant to ask questions, it is important to create a clinical environment in which questions are welcomed and to promote the use of reliable digital information. These findings are expected to contribute to improving vaccination support and risk communication that are more responsive to parents’ needs.

Publication Information
Aya Saitoh, Akihiko Saitoh, Hajime Kamiya, Takashi Nakano, Toshio Murayama.
Parental inquiry behavior and use of web-based information for childhood vaccination in Japan: Implications for communication quality and vaccination schedule adherence
Vaccine 82 (2026) 128623.
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2026.128623