OBJECTIVES: To understand the preferences of UK nurses for attributes of pediatric hexavalent vaccines.
METHODS: A discrete-choice experiment was administered to 150 UK nurses. Respondents were asked to make 12 choices between 2 hypothetical hexavalent pediatric vaccines defined by four attributes: type of device (prefilled vs. requiring reconstitution); plastic in packaging (plastic blisters vs. no plastic blisters); years on the market (<1 vs. 1-3 vs. >3 years), and time that the vaccine can stay safely at room temperature (3 vs. 6 days). Other attributes were assumed to be similar including safety, efficacy, availability, and cost. Odds ratios and the conditional relative importance of attributes (the proportion of total utility gained by switching from the least to the most preferred levels of attributes, rescaled to sum to 100%) were calculated from random-parameters logit model estimates.
RESULTS: Nurses were almost three times more likely to prefer prefilled syringes to a syringe and vial combination (OR 2.80, 95% CI 1.92-3.68). Vaccines that have been commercially available for <1 year were 35% less likely to preferred (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.47-0.84) over vaccines that have been commercially available for >3 years, while the preference for vaccines available for 1-3 years vs > 3 years was not statistically significant. The ORs for the time (3 vs 6 days) a vaccine can stay at room temperature and for plastic blisters in packaging were also not significant. The type of device was the most important attribute, associated with 61% of total utility gained by switching from the least to the most preferred levels of attributes in the DCE, followed by years on the market (25%), plastic in packaging (10%) and time outside the refrigerator (4%).
CONCLUSION: In this study, the type of device was the most important attribute of pediatric hexavalent vaccines among nurses in the UK.
