Abstract
Objectives
Attitudes toward vaccination are important drivers of vaccination decisions and behavior. But researchers have pointed to the shortage of such studies on Eastern Europe.
Methods
A literature review of 14 survey studies was conducted.
Results
The review showed that Lithuanians’ attitudes toward vaccines appear to be volatile with considerable discrepancy between views about the importance of vaccines and their perceived effectiveness and safety. Perceptions of vaccine risks are high, with Lithuanians challenging both specific vaccines (children’s, flu) and vaccination in general. Lithuanians’ perceptions of vaccine importance are among the lowest in the EU (23rd out of 28 countries).
Conclusions
Lithuanians do not entirely reject vaccines, but many are worried about their health impact. More studies are needed to explore vaccine perceptions in Lithuania and potential factors shaping those, like media representations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baltijos tyrimai (2011) Vakcinos. Lietuvos gyventojų nuostatos ir patirtis. http://www.ulac.lt/uploads/downloads/alisauskienes%20pr.pdf. Accessed 5 Mar 2020
Betsch C, Korn L, Holtmann C (2015) Target fence-sitters not antivaccinators. PNAS 112(49):E6725–E6726
Čaplinskas S, Razmuvienė D, Foktas G (2011) Vakcinos. Lietuvos gyventojų nuostatos ir patirtis. http://www.ulac.lt/uploads/downloads/leidiniai/Vakcinos.pdf. Accessed 15 June 2019
Converse P (1964) The nature of belief system in mass publics. In: Apter D (ed) Ideology and discontent. Free Press, New York, pp 206–261
Dubé E, Laberge C, Guay M, Bramadat P, Roy R, Bettinger J (2013) Vaccine hesitancy: an overview. Hum Vaccin Immunother 9(8):1763–1773
European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (2019) Monthly measles and rubella monitoring, August 2019. https://ecdc.europa.eu/sites/portal/files/documents/measles-monthly-report-august-2019.pdf. Accessed 15 Aug 2019
European Commission (2019) Europeans’ attitudes towards vaccination. https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/vaccination/docs/20190426_special-eurobarometer-sp488_en.pdf. Accessed 30 June 2019
Eurostat (2018) Educational attainment statistics. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Educational_attainment_statistics. Accessed 5 Oct 2019
Hoch SL (1997) The social consequences of soviet immunization policies, 1945–1980. https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1997-812-03g-Hoch.pdf. Accessed 5 Oct 2019
Kennedy AE, LaVail KH, Nowak GJ, Basket MM, Landry SJ (2011) Confidence about vaccines in the United States: understanding parents’ perceptions. Health Aff 30(6):1151–1159
Kriščiūnienė A, Jurgutis A, Jurgaitienė D, Strukčinskienė B (2016) Miesto ir kaimo gyventojų požiūris į skiepus. Visuomenės sveikata 2:106–112
Kuprevičienė N, Žagminas K (2014) Lietuvos suaugusių gyventojų ketinimas skiepytis ir jį lemiantys veiksniai. Visuomenės sveikata 66:56–67
Lane S, MacDonald NE, Marti M, Dumolard L (2018) Vaccine hesitancy around the globe. Vaccine 36(26):3861–3867
Larson HJ, de Figueiredo A, Xiahong Z, Schulz WS, Verger P, Johnston IG, Jones NS (2016) The state of vaccine confidence 2016. EBioMedicine 12:295–301
Lidžiūtė L, Stasiuvienė D (2015) Tėvų, kurių vaikai lanko lopšelį, informuotumas apie vakcinas ir jų požiūris į vaikų imunoprofilaktiką. Visuomenės sveikata 1:102–109
Nevulienė I, Platūkienė A, Samoškienė K, Valinskytė M, Vasiliauskienė O (2018) Vaikų imunoprofilaktika: tėvų žinios, požiūris, veiksniai lemiantys vaikų skiepijimą. Lietuvos bendrosios praktikos gydytojas 22(8):517–521
OECD (2018a) Economic surveys, Lithuania, 2018 June. https://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Lithuania-2018-OECD-economic-survey-overview.pdf. Accessed 5 Oct 2019
OECD (2018b) OECD reviews of health systems: Lithuania 2018. https://www.oecd.org/health/health-systems/OECD-Reviews-of-Health-Systems-Lithuania-2018-Assessment-and-Recommendations.pdf. Accessed 5 Oct 2019
Opel DJ, Mangione-Smith R, Taylor JA, Korfiatis C, Wiese C, Catz S, Martin DP (2011) Development of a survey to identify vaccine-hesitant parents. Human Vaccin 7(4):419–425
Rossen I, Hursltone MJ, Dunlop PD, Lawrence C (2019) Accepters, fence sitters, or rejecters: moral profiles of vaccination attitudes. Soc Sci Med 224:23–27
Schäfer MS (2017) How changing media structures are affecting science news coverage. In: Jamieson KH, Kahan DM, Scheufele DA (eds) The Oxford handbook of the science of science communication. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 51–57
Šebeliauskaitė I, Čaplinskas S (2018) Vaikų skiepijimo apimčių tendencijos Lietuvoje, 2003–2017. 6-oji Nacionalinė užkrečiamųjų ligų konferencija: 2018 m. lapkričio 29–30. http://www.ulac.lt/uploads/downloads/konferencijos/Teziu_knyga_nuk_18.pdf. Accessed 3 Sept 2019
Šeškutė M, Tamulevičienė E, Levinienė G (2018) Knowledge and attitudes of postpartum mothers towards immunization of their children in a Lithuanian tertiary teaching hospital. Medicina 54(1):2
Smith TC (2017) Vaccine rejection and hesitancy: a review and call to action. Open Forum Infect Dis 4(3):ofx146
Thornton J (2019) Measles cases in Europe tripled from 2017 to 2018. BMJ 364:1634
United Nations Development Program. Human development reports, 2018. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/LTU. Accessed 5 Oct 2019
Užkrečiamų ligų prevencijos ir AIDS centras (2019) Patvirtinta nacionalinė 2019–2023 metų imunoprofilaktikos programa, 2019 02 19. http://www.ulac.lt/naujienos/pranesimai-spaudai/patvirtinta-nacionaline-20192023-metu-imunoprofilaktikos-programa. Accessed 5 Oct 2019
Užkrečiamų ligų prevencijos ir AIDS centras (a). Tymų epidemiologinė apžvalga Lietuvoje. http://www.ulac.lt/lt/tymu-epidemiologine-apzvalga-lietuvoje. Accessed 30 Sept 30 2019
Užkrečiamų ligų prevencijos ir AIDS centras (b). Tymų žemėlapis Lietuvoje. http://www.ulac.lt/lt/tymu-zemelapis-lietuvoje-2019. Accessed 30 Sept 2019
Vaccine Confidence Project (2018) State of vaccine confidence in the EU 2018. https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/vaccination/docs/2018_vaccine_confidence_en.pdf. Accessed 5 May 2019
Ward JK, Colgrove J, Verger P (2018) Why France is making eight new vaccines mandatory. Vaccine 36(14):1801–1803
Wellcome Global Monitor (2019) How does the world feel about science and health? file:///C:/Users/1032211/Downloads/wellcome-global-monitor-2018%20(1).pdf. Accessed 30 June 2019
World Health Organization (2014) Report of the SAGE working group on vaccine hesitancy. https://www.who.int/immunization/sage/meetings/2014/october/1_Report_WORKING_GROUP_vaccine_hesitancy_final.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2019
World Health Organization (2019) New measles surveillance data from WHO, 2019 August 12. https://www.who.int/immunization/newsroom/new-measles-data-august-2019/en/. Accessed 28 Sept 2019
Yaqub OJ, Castle-Clarke S, Sevdalis N, Chataway J (2014) Attitudes to vaccination: a critical review. Soc Sci Med 112:1–11
Žagminas K, Šurkienė G, Urbanovič N, Stukas R (2007) Tėvų požiūris į vaikų skiepijimą. Medicina 43(2):161–169
Žalaitė G, Kelbauskienė I (2019) Lietuvoje ir užsienyje gyvenančių lietuvių tėvų žinios bei nuomonė apie skiepus. Lietuvos bendrosios praktikos gydytojas 23(4):221–223
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Valinciute, A., Schäfer, M.S. Lithuanians’ perceptions of vaccination and their sources of information: a literature review. Int J Public Health 65, 981–991 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01389-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01389-0