Understanding individuals’ decisions about vaccination: a comparison between Expected Utility and Regret Theory models

This may be relevant to issues of drug adherence

By:	M Zia Sadique .John Edmunds,Nancy Devlin,David Parkin
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cty:dpaper:0503&r=cbe
This paper proposes two new theoretical models for examining individual decision-making regarding vaccination. In each case, individuals’ decisions are modelled as a binary choice (i.e. to accept or to reject an invitation to receive vaccination) which are a product both of the perceived risk of the preventable disease in question and of the perceived risk of adverse side effects of the vaccine itself. Individuals decisions are modelled in two ways – first, as expected utility maximising and second, as regret minimising – and the results compared. In both cases, the decision to vaccinate is explained by a threshold condition with respect to the risk of remaining exposed to the disease by rejecting vaccination, and the risk of experiencing adverse events from vaccination itself. Regret-averse individuals have a higher threshold – suggesting a lower propensity to vaccinate than that suggested by the expected! utility