The National Immunisation Programme (NIP) provides Dutch children with vaccinations for twelve infectious diseases free of charge and on voluntary basis. During several years, the vaccination coverage in the Netherlands has declined (about 0.5 percent per year). It is important to have a high vaccination coverage in order to stop spreading diseases and reaching herd immunity. This herd immunity, of which the minimum percentage differs per disease but lies around 90 percent, protects the people that cannot be vaccinated due to illness or are too young to be vaccinated.

This graduation project focuses on risk communication, presenting both advantages and disadvantages, about the first child vaccinations (DKTP-Hib-Hepb and pneumococcal vaccination between 6 and 9 weeks of age). The project does not focus on increasing the vaccination coverage. The goal is to support (soon to be) parents in a decision making process based on information in order to strengthen those who are positive towards vaccination and help the people who are doubting about participation in the NIP. People who do not have the intention to participate in the NIP are not taken into account. In order to find the most applicable strategy or means of communication, the target group was involved during the whole project.

Different theories about behavioural intentions and decision making processes were examined which has finally led to the model that can be found in Figure 1. This model is based on the normative description of an analytical process of making a choice from Timmermans (2013) represented by the pink boxes. In collaboration with experts, this model is adapted as is visualised by the dotted parts. The short-cuts that are added visualise more intuitive decision making strategies (heart and eye) and a thorough analytical approach that iterates between structuring and evaluation (scale).

Information needs and sources that are used by the target group are found by doing seven interviews with people in the target group. Several ideas with applicable approaches towards communicating the information were formed out of these insights. The ideas led to three design concepts that communicate the information in different ways; positive towards vaccination (focussing on the benefit of herd immunity), as transparent as possible (by showing both advantages and disadvantages) and negative towards vaccination (focussing on the side effects that can occur).

The front pages of the concepts (see Figure 2) are designed for intuitive people. Those who have a more analytical approach will go through the different steps as stated in Figure 1 by opening the leaflet. Recommendations for improvement of these concepts and future research could be made after five concept tests with the target group. The concepts were evaluated and ranked in the test.

The seven interviews that were held and the five concept tests resulted into interpretations of only those people involved. Because only a small amount of participants is used, the data is mainly used for inspiration and not for conclusions about the overall target group.

This project is done in collaboration with the RIVM and VUmc.