Validation of the vaccine conspiracy beliefs scale

• Conspiracy beliefs about vaccines are widely endorsed in the general population.
• We assessed the validity of a brief scale of vaccine conspiracy beliefs (VCBS).
• The VCBS is one-dimensional and has high internal consistency.
• Scores on the VCBS are negatively related to parents’ willingness to vaccinate their child.
• Using the VCBS, researchers will be able to investigate how such beliefs impact vaccine hesitancy and uptake.

BackgroundParents’ vaccine attitudes influence their decision regarding child vaccination. To date, no study has evaluated the impact of vaccine conspiracy beliefs on human papillomavirus vaccine acceptance. The authors assessed the validity of a Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale (VCBS) and determined whether this scale was associated with parents’ willingness to vaccinate their son with the HPV vaccine.MethodsCanadian parents completed a 24-min online survey in 2014. Measures included socio-demographic variables, HPV knowledge, health care provider recommendation, Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ), the seven-item VCBS, and parents’ willingness to vaccinate their son at two price points.ResultsA total of 1427 Canadian parents completed the survey in English (61.2%) or French (38.8%). A Factor Analysis revealed the VCBS is one-dimensional and has high internal consistency (α=0.937). The construct validity of the VCBS was supported by a moderate relationship with the CMQ (r=0.44, p<0.001). Hierarchical regression analyses found the VCBS is negatively related to parents’ willingness to vaccinate their son with the HPV vaccine at both price points (‘free’ or ‘$300′) after controlling for gender, age, household income, education level, HPV knowledge, and health care provider recommendation.ConclusionsThe VCBS is a brief, valid scale that will be useful in further elucidating the correlates of vaccine hesitancy. Future research could use the VCBS to evaluate the impact of vaccine conspiracies beliefs on vaccine uptake and how concerns about vaccination may be challenged and reversed.