E-health literacy and the vaccination dilemma: an Israeli perspective

Introduction. Parents' hesitancy to use vaccines is becoming more prevalent in Israel. The aim of the current research is to examine whether there is a relationship between the increase in parents' level of involvement in the decision to vaccinate their children, and the increase in searching for and filtering information from online electronic sources. The current research is based on Hochbaum and Rosenstock's health belief model from 1952 and the Lily model, which relates to e-health literacy. Method. The research population consists of 200 parents of children born from 2000 forward. Researchers surveyed five aspects to gather data: demographic characteristics, vaccination intentions, level of online information sources use, knowledge on the subject of vaccination and perceived e-health literacy. Results. Findings show that most of the parents who hesitated over whether to vaccinate their children decided not to vaccinate them. These parents believe they can search for information on the Internet and they surf different kinds of sites (government, social network sites, forums and alternatives). Conclusion. This study expanded the theoretical literature that deals with e-health and vaccination and may help directors of medical institutions to find solutions of how to lower the number of individuals who refuse to vaccinate their children.