INDIVIDUALS’ INFANT VACCINATION DECISIONS: THE ASSOCIATION WITH OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE

Despite the successful role of vaccination in health promotion, vaccine hesitancy remains a growing concern.Information technology and social media fuel vaccine hesitancy, spreading dis-and misinformation about vaccination, affecting caregivers' ability to make informed decisions on whether to vaccinate their infants.This South African study investigated the association of vaccination decisions with objective and subjective knowledge.Objective knowledge was measured using a standardised scale on general vaccine-related proven facts, while the 5-point Likert scale on subjective knowledge was developed from similar studies and vaccine-related literature.The online survey used convenience and purposive sampling (N = 415).Only 73.6% of respondents had made a positive decision to vaccinate their infants.Respondents scored under average (45.7%) on the objective knowledge test, while the mean score (3.61 0.68) for subjective knowledge indicated a knowledge self-rating higher than other people.A positive vaccination decision correlated positively with objective knowledge and negatively with subjective knowledge.There was also a difference in subjective knowledge, with respondents with a negative decision rating their subjective knowledge higher than those with a positive decision.Our results indicate that objective knowledge about infant vaccinations remains low, although individuals perceive their knowledge to be more than others, suggesting that they are unaware of their knowledge limitations.Since both objective and subjective knowledge showed correlations with vaccination decisions, both these types of knowledge should be considered in the planning of health promotion attempts to improve vaccination uptake.