Methodological Aspects of a COVID-19 Vaccine Discrete Choice Experiment Survey in Canada, Germany, UK, and US General Populations
Author(s)
Sri Bhashyam S1, Lewis HB2, Rousculp M3, Shane LG4, d la Cruz M5, Galinsky J2, Demchuk K6, Lehmann C7, Waite N8, Lazarus J9, Bonanni P10, Salisbury D11
1ICON Plc, Reading, RDG, UK, 2ICON Plc, Reading, Reading, UK, 3Novavax Inc., Gaithersburg, MD, USA, 4L.G. Shane, New York, NY, USA, 5ICON Plc, Raleigh, NC, USA, 6ICON Plc, Burlington, Canada, 7University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923 Köln, Germany, 8University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, 9ISGlobal Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 10University of Florence, Italy, 50121 Firenze, Florence, Italy, 11Programme for Global Health, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London, UK
Presentation Documents
OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 vaccine preferences can influence vaccine coverage. Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) can be used to elicit tradeoffs. DCE development requires evidence-based attribute selection and validation of understanding with target audiences. An online DCE survey was developed to assess preferences and systematic tradeoffs for COVID-19 vaccines in Canada, Germany, the UK, USA, and Italy.
METHODS: First, a targeted literature review and interviews with country-level experts were conducted to inform the attributes and levels and the DCE survey. Secondly, pretest interviews were conducted in Canada, Germany, the UK, and USA (March 2023) to evaluate respondents’ understanding of the survey and ability to make tradeoffs as expected. Thirdly, a soft launch of the survey was conducted in Canada, the UK, and USA (April‒May 2023) to evaluate the experimental design. Self-reported antivaccinationists were excluded.
RESULTS: Six pretest interviews were completed in each country (N=24). Mean age was 43.7 years; 50% were women. Participants’ top four priorities were vaccine protection against COVID-19, serious side effects, protection against severe COVID-19, and common side effects, followed by vaccine type and timing of COVID-19/influenza vaccines. These interviews validated the importance and understanding of key attributes driving people’s choices, and feedback was used to improve attribute description clarity.
The soft launch of the survey included 259 respondents; 9.7% were partially vaccinated/unvaccinated and 90.3% were fully vaccinated. Mean age was 69.3 (SD=8.59) years; 60% were men. No changes to the experimental design were deemed necessary. Full survey results will be available in autumn 2023.CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of key vaccine attributes driving people’s choices and evaluates people’s characteristics that may influence vaccine preferences. The DCE will be fielded in Canada, Germany, the UK, USA, and Italy (up to 2,500 participants) to increase the understanding of COVID-19 vaccine preference and hesitancy.
Conference/Value in Health Info
Value in Health, Volume 26, Issue 11, S2 (December 2023)
Code
MSR21
Topic
Patient-Centered Research
Topic Subcategory
Stated Preference & Patient Satisfaction
Disease
Respiratory-Related Disorders (Allergy, Asthma, Smoking, Other Respiratory), Vaccines