Page 24 - Preventing pertussis in early infancy - Visser

Chapter 2
Qualitative study
the participants that we were interested in arguments both for and against acceptance, and we asked them to write down these reasons for themselves first. An open group discussion followed, and the moderator asked more in-depth questions. The assistant checked whether all topics taken from the interview guide had been covered and introduced an additional theme where relevant. In order to ascertain whether new arguments would arise for respondents, in case they would have access to more detailed information on pertussis and vaccination, we then handed out a sheet with factual information about pertussis and the proposed vaccination (comparable to information routinely provided in public health leaflets) to the participants. Then the group discussed this information.
Analysis
The focus group meetings and interviews were recorded with a digital voice recorder and transcribed verbatim by an independent transcriber (RW). The moderator and a research assistant independently coded all the focus group meetings and interviews. They used the qualitative software programme Atlas.ti for this purpose. We performed a thematic content analysis after completion of all focus group meetings and interviews and extracted main themes by means of both an inductive approach and a deductive approach. The moderator and research assistant discussed the codes and themes. They discussed any disagreements further until they achieved consensus. This study adheres to the Coreq guidelines for reporting qualitative studies(Tong et al. 2007).
Ethical review
The Medical Ethics Committee of the Arnhem – Nijmegen region assessed the study and concluded that it was exempt from their approval; reference number: 2010/475.
Results
We conducted a total of 13 focus group meetings and six individual interviews. There were 21 new parents (five focus groups, 17 women and four men), 26 maternity assistants (five focus groups, all women), 12 midwives (three focus groups, all women), and six neonatal care nurses (individual interviews, all women). The focus groups consisted of a minimum of three participants and a maximum of seven participants.
The expected, or recently born, child of the interviewed parent was usually their first baby; only four of the parents already had children. The average working experience of the professionals was 10 years, ranging from less than a year (just started working) to 42 years.
We found nine common factors which all target groups considered in the decision on their own vaccination, that was intended to protect their baby or a patient. Some of the factors were more prominent in specific target groups. In the following these nine perceived determinants of intention to accept pertussis vaccination for cocooning will be described. In Figure 1 an overview of these determinants is presented, as well as the overarching themes which we elicited from these determinants. We elaborate on the overarching themes in the discussion section of this article.
23
22