Healthism vis-à-vis Vaccine Hesitancy: Insights from Parents Who Either Delay or Refuse Children’s Vaccination in Portugal

Abstract

Although healthism appears to be at the heart of the decision-making process of vaccine hesitancy, this matter has been understudied. We believe that the concept of healthism may be key to lessen the polarization of discourses around vaccination, offering a broad understanding of parents’ decision to not vaccinate their children. This article aims to deepen the knowledge on the relation between healthism and vaccine hesitancy, using Portugal as a case study. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and therefore, in-depth interviews were conducted with 31 vaccine-hesitant parents. The findings showed that vaccine-hesitant parents usually adopt several strategies based on natural living to prevent and tackle their children’s potential health issues. There appears to be a common approach towards health and life (i.e., healthism) among vaccine-hesitant parents. Drawing upon the healthism ideology, vaccine-hesitant parents make choices to ensure the good health of their child. These choices nevertheless represent a privileged position as the pursuit of healthfulness is constrained by sociodemographic aspects. Using vaccine hesitancy as the starting point, our findings show that healthism and its focus on personal accountability under the umbrella of neoliberalism may jeopardize global public health. Healthcare professionals should pay particular attention to healthism when addressing vaccine hesitancy in Portugal and elsewhere. Research evidence advocates the need to be sensitive to the broad spectrum of vaccine hesitancy as this encompasses multiple views on the subject.

Opinions, Attitudes and Factors Related to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Uptake in Eight South American Countries

“…Although we cannot prove it, it is possible that this finding is more linked to the concept of healthism, in which high-socioeconomic status individuals, i.e., those with more social, economic and educational resources available to them, are more likely to be vaccine-hesitant. This phenomenon was well described, especially in European high-income countries [44,45], and it may be the case of Chile, where it seems that a more hesitant population was somehow selected. However, in other high-income South American country such as Uruguay, this pattern was not observed.…”