Understanding healthcare providers’ preferred attributes of pediatric pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in the United States

ABSTRACT

As higher-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) become available for pediatric populations in the US, it is important to understand healthcare provider (HCP) preferences for and acceptability of PCVs. US HCPs (pediatricians, family medicine physicians and advanced practitioners) completed an online, cross-sectional survey between March and April 2023. HCPs were eligible if they recommended or prescribed vaccines to children age <24 months, spent ≥25% of their time in direct patient care, and had ≥2 y of experience in their profession. The survey included a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in which HCPs selected preferred options from different hypothetical vaccine profiles with systematic variation in the levels of five attributes. Relative attribute importance was quantified. Among 548 HCP respondents, the median age was 43.2 y, and the majority were male (57.9%) and practiced in urban areas (69.7%). DCE results showed that attributes with the greatest impact on HCP decision-making were 1) immune response for the shared serotypes covered by PCV13 (31.4%), 2) percent of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) covered by vaccine serotypes (21.3%), 3) acute otitis media (AOM) label indication (20.3%), 4) effectiveness against serotype 3 (17.6%), and 5) number of serotypes in the vaccine (9.5%). Among US HCPs, the most important attribute of PCVs was comparability of immune response for PCV13 shared serotypes, while the number of serotypes was least important. Findings suggest new PCVs eliciting high immune responses for serotypes that contribute substantially to IPD burden and maintaining immunogenicity against serotypes in existing PCVs are preferred by HCPs.

KEYWORDS:

• Survey
• discrete choice experiment
• provider preferences
• knowledge
• attitudes
• behaviors
• pneumococcal conjugate vaccines
• pneumococcal disease
• pediatric vaccines

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all HCPs who participated in this study, as well as Empanel for its assistance in recruiting participants for this study. Data analysis support provided by Debdeep Chattopadhyay from OPEN Health, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Disclosure statement

S.M., J.W., K.A.F., B.C., and T.W.W. are employees of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, and may own stock/stock options in Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA. Inc. J.T, N.N, A.P, R.P.V, M.H and J.K.S are employees of OPEN Health, which received consulting fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.