Preferences of healthcare providers in Switzerland for attributes of pediatric hexavalent vaccines: a discrete-choice experiment

• Published in: Current medical research and opinion 2024-05, Vol.40 (5), p.893-904
• Main Authors: Samant, Salome, Oberle, Susanne, Marcek, Tomas, Poulos, Christine, Chintakayala, Phani, Langevin, Edith, Petigara, Tanaz, Boeri, Marco
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Choice Behavior; Female; Haemophilus influenzae type b - immunology; Haemophilus Vaccines - administration & dosage; Health Personnel - psychology; Health Personnel - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Infant; Male; Switzerland; Vaccines, Combined - administration & dosage
• ISSN: 0300-7995; 1473-4877
• DOI: 10.1080/03007995.2024.2325550

To understand the preferences of healthcare providers (HCPs) in Switzerland for pediatric hexavalent vaccine attributes. A discrete-choice experiment included a series of choices between 2 hypothetical pediatric hexavalent vaccines with varying attributes: device type (including preparation time and risk of dosage errors), proportion of infants seroprotected against type b (Hib) at 11-12 months (pre-booster), packaging size, years on the market, and the thermostability at room temperature. Odds ratios (ORs) and conditional relative attribute importance (CRAI) were calculated using random-parameters logit. HCPs (150 pediatricians and 40 nursing staff) in Switzerland were unlikely to choose a vaccine conferring 50% (OR 0.00; 95% CI 0.00-0.00) or 70% (OR 0.01; 95% CI 0.00-0.01) of infants with Hib seroprotection at 11-12 months (pre-booster) compared with a vaccine conferring 90% seroprotection. The odds of choosing a vaccine available on the market for more than 3 years were nearly 5 times the odds of choosing a vaccine available on the market for less than 1 year (OR 4.76; 95% CI 1.87-7.65). The odds of choosing a vaccine in a prefilled syringe were nearly 3 times the odds of choosing a reconstituted vaccine (OR 2.77; 95% CI 1.39-4.15), and the odds of choosing a vaccine with a smaller package size were nearly 2 times the odds of choosing a vaccine with larger package size (OR 1.89; 95% CI 1.23-2.55). HCPs were equally likely to choose vaccines that can stay at room temperature for 6 versus 3 days (OR 1.07; 95% CI 0.73-1.42). According to CRAI, the most important attribute was Hib seroprotection, followed by years on the market, device type, and packaging size. Hib seroprotection at 11-12 months was the most important hexavalent vaccine attribute to HCPs in this study.