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Background: Vaccinations avert up to 3 million deaths every year worldwide and have been widely recognized as the mosteffective public health intervention. However, child vaccinations are experiencing an increasing scrutinyamong part of the public community especially in developed countries, leading to what is known as vaccinehesitancy. In the last 10 years Italy experienced an alarming drop in child vaccination rate. This resulted ina government decision to make child vaccinations compulsory and a requirement for enrollment intoschools.

Aims: The overall aim of this study is to understand reasons for parental vaccine hesitancy in Italy, and therebycontribute to strategies to promote a high child vaccination coverage. The specific aims are: i) to exploreparents’ attitudes towards child vaccinations; ii) to examine the main factors affecting parents’ vaccinationdecision; and iii) to identify strategies and potential interventions aimed to challenge parental vaccinehesitancy.

Methods: A qualitative approach will be used with semi-structured interviews carried out with mothers and fathers ofchildren between 3 to 24 months of age. Data will be analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Adescriptive quantitative analysis will be done for data such as gender, age, education level and number ofchildren. The Piedmont region and specifically the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola province, due to its drop of childvaccination coverage, is chosen as the setting for this study. The selection of informants will be intentionaland based on a non-probability method.

Expected Outcomes: This study is expected to provide an important scientific contribution to the emerging research field ofvaccine hesitancy. The final analysis will identify factors negatively affecting parents’ vaccination decisionand reasons for parental vaccine hesitancy in Italy. Findings might be utilized by health authorities toidentify strategies and potential interventions to increase child vaccination coverage.