NEWS24 July 2009

IFF to measure vaccination campaign impact

New business UK

UK— IFF Research has won the contract to measure the impact of a government campaign to raise awareness of a vaccination to protect young women against cervical cancer.

Starting this month, IFF will manage the delivery of 1,000 face-to-face interviews with 12- to 13-year-old and 14- to 18-year-old girls and their mothers in their own homes, across England and Wales.

The research will measure current perceptions of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine in order to inform the NHS Immunisation Information service’s communications plans.

From the autumn the Department of Health, working with the Central Office of Information (COI), will launch an new integrated campaign to reassure girls and their families about the benefits of the HPV vaccine. 

Following the campaign, IFF will undertake a second round of face-to-face interviews to measure key criteria including ad recall, key message delivery and likelihood to act.

IFF associate director Ashley Moore said: “Research into any aspect of personal health is highly sensitive and engaging a young female audience on such an emotive subject makes this brief all the more challenging. 

“Questioning young girls and their mothers together is a creative research approach which can yield a new level of insight into how the vaccine is being received.”

IFF was recently reappointed to the COI market research roster.

Brian Tarran

New business UK

@RESEARCH LIVE

1 Comment

Grace Filby

15 years ago

"A new integrated campaign to reassure girls and their families about the benefits of the HPV vaccine" from the DH and the COI? Unfortunately the existing DH campaign has been riddled with factual errors, false assumptions and oversights. For example, there are 60,000 copies of printed misinformation about side effects still in circulation with GPs and PCTs - the manufacturers' official figures are vastly understated by the DH leaflets by 10x - 100x, and no erratum slips were ever sent out. Government ministers do know this but nothing has been done to put things right. It is only fair to inform families of the true risks and medical contraindications of any vaccine - not just to make reassurances about the benefits claimed in the advertising. Also it is only fair to respect a family's decision for whatever reason, since they may be aware of underlying medical conditions or sensitivity to chemicals such as the aluminium content. Sadly this has not happened in some cases and parents have officially complained. Meanwhile many girls across the UK are now maimed as a direct result of the first year of this DH HPV vaccine campaign. The NHS are burdened with the duty and responsibility to get these girls back to good health after their crippling and painful ordeal, and to make sure that it doesn't happen again. While there are Parliamentary Questions and a Freedom of Information question in hand at this present time, may I refer you to a slideshow with clear evidence of these findings, so that lessons can be learned and acted upon promptly. In particular, please note the research from Keele University about the benefits of a silica-rich mineral water in eradicating aluminium from the body. Their article: "A role for the body burden of aluminium in vaccine-associated macrophagic myofasciitis and chronic fatigue syndrome" concludes that a CAUTIONARY case can be made in respect of future mass vaccination programmes e.g. HPV. It rather changes the situation, doesn't it? Slideshow: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=93703&id=520276478&l=31b0c6c4e5

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