Communicating About Childhood Immunization: New Insights from Aotearoa/New Zealand

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This chapter discusses an ongoing research project to explore communicative phenomena in the childhood immunization context in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Childhood immunization rates in New Zealand offer a complex and perturbing research problem—to the extent that, in 2010, a parliamentary inquiry specifically investigated how to improve completion rates (New Zealand Parliament, 2010). Globally, immunization is at a record high (UNICEF, 2008), yet within that overall upward trend, some countries, including New Zealand, are experiencing a decline from prior levels. Minority world (affluent or “developed”) countries appear particularly affected by fluctuation, with the World Health Organization concerned about “increasing complacency about immunizing children” in Europe (Global Forum, 2008, n.p.), a 2010 study finding immunization rates declining among “comparatively well educated or ‘high-information’” parents in the United States (NCQA, 2010, p. 13), and Australian levels at a seven-year low in 2010 (Uplend, 2010). Given these international trends, our chapter offers a timely exploration of immunization communication decision-making processes that may have implications beyond the immediate geographical context described.