Turkish Adaptation and Reliability and Validity Study of Parent Attitudes About Childhood Vaccines Survey

Abstract

Aim: Since the discovery of vaccines, opposing views have emerged and spread to the present day. Despite being based on different beliefs in different societies, anti-vaccination has become a rapidly growing social movement worldwide. Resistance to vaccination was included among health hazards at a global level by the World Health Organization in 2019. In a review of the literature, some studies conducted on vaccine rejection, vaccine hesitations and vaccine acceptance were found in different countries, but no studies in which vaccine hesitation was examined had been conducted in Turkey. The main reason was considered to be the lack of a vaccine attitude scale adapted into the Turkish language. The aim of this study was to carry out a vaccination attitudes scale validity and reliability test on a scale which had been proven in foreign empirical studies and been translated into the Turkish language and to publish the scale in the field literature to be used in future vaccination attitudes studies in Turkey. Materials and Methods: This study is a methodological study. The Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) scale was translated into Turkish by three experts who were competent in both English and Turkish, then it was translated back into English again. As a result of the comparison made, several changes were made to the Turkish scale. A pilot application was used and its results were evaluated. Confirming the results of the pilot application, the scale was applied to 225 parents. The reliability of the analyzed data was tested via Cronbach's alpha. Results: The reliability of the data was determined to be 0.84, and the scale was considered reliable. Confirmatory factor analysis for the adapted scale was carried out, and the adaptation of the scale into Turkish was completed. Conclusion: The Turkish version of the PACV scale is a valid and reliable scale for evaluating vaccine attitudes including vaccine rejection, vaccine hesitations and vaccine acceptance.