Peer-reviewed article
Health communication strategies to address parental vaccine hesitancy regarding childhood vaccination in Nigeria: a systematic review
Tarela Juliet Ike, Dung Ezekiel Jidong, Callistar Kidochukwu Obi, Maureen Iru Ntaji, Mulugeta Tamire et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5This is a systematic review looking at how health communication can help reduce parents' hesitancy about vaccinating young children in Nigeria. The researchers searched six databases and found 12 relevant studies published between 2017 and 2026. They grouped the communication approaches into four types: media campaigns, government-led messaging, community-based approaches, and phone-based messaging. The review concludes that vaccine communication works best when it is culturally sensitive, uses multiple channels, and involves trusted community and religious leaders.
Key points
- Vaccine hesitancy is described as a major barrier to childhood immunization in Nigeria.
- 12 studies met inclusion criteria after searching six databases.
- Four main communication strategy types were identified: media campaigns, state-sponsored communication, community-centered strategies, and phone-based strategies.
- Community-centered strategies involving religious and traditional leaders were highlighted as important.
- The review recommends multi-channel, culturally attuned communication responsive to community information needs.
Limitations
As a synthesis of qualitative studies, the review does not provide quantitative measures of how much each strategy improved actual vaccination rates, and details on the quality or design of the 12 included studies are not given here.
Abstract
Background Childhood vaccine hesitancy is a significant public health concern. In Nigeria, it remains a major barrier to achieving optimal immunization uptake, contributing to preventable morbidity and mortality. Yet there remains a significant research gap on the synthesis of health communication strategies to address parental hesitancy to childhood vaccination. The primary aim and original contribution of the present review is to synthesize health communication strategies to address parental hesitancy to childhood vaccination in Nigeria. Method The review strategy was underpinned by the Population, phenomenon of interest and context (PICo) model. Hence, the population (parents, carers, or primary caregivers of children between the ages of 0 and 3 years), the phenomenon of interest (health communication strategies to address parental hesitancy to childhood vaccination), and the context (vaccine hesitancy). For qualitative studies, the PICo strategy, which is a modified version of PICO, was used. Boolean operators (AND/OR/NOT) were used to ensure rigor in adopting informed search terms. Six databases were searched for published articles between 2017 and March 2026. N = 12 studies met the inclusion criteria, and the relevant data were synthesized and analyzed using a thematic synthesis approach. The review protocol was pre-registered on the PROSPERO Registry (no. CRD420261303323). Findings The synthesized studies and analyses yielded the following main findings: (i) Media campaign strategies, (ii) State-sponsored communication strategies, (iii) Community-centered strategies, and (iv) Phone-based strategies. Conclusion Childhood vaccine hesitancy remains a major challenge in Nigeria. The review recommends that vaccine communication be culturally attuned and multi-channeled (e.g., embedding community-centered mechanisms—particularly those involving trusted religious and traditional leaders, media platforms, and mobile phone text messaging). It also recommends that vaccine communication be responsive to both structural constraints and community information need to address parental hesitancy to childhood vaccine uptake.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Various health communication strategies aimed at reducing parental vaccine hesitancy, including media campaigns, government messaging, community-based engagement, and phone-based messaging.
- Population
- Parents, carers, or primary caregivers of children aged 0-3 years in Nigeria
Key finding
Media campaign strategies were identified as one approach to address hesitancy.
Ike et al. · OpenAlex · 25 Aug 2026