VACS: VAccination disComfort Scale

In this article we focus on the discomfort experienced by children during vaccination and ask ourselves how this discomfort could be quantified. We develop VACS, a tool to measure this discomfort as a number in the range 0-25 and apply it to 40 vaccinations of children aged 2 to 12. Our findings show that approximately 40% of the children do not face discomfort during vaccination, but for the rest discomfort of varying degrees is observed. We also find that doctors are content with their patients facing considerably higher discomfort levels that what the children themselves are willing to withstand. Surprisingly, characteristics such as a) gender, b) whether the state’s recommended vaccination program has been implemented in full and even c) prior negative vaccination experiences are found to be poor predictors of vaccination discomfort. Age may be a factor, with younger children experiencing discomfort more often and more intensely, but more research is required in order to validate this. The formulation of VACS opens the door for more systematic work towards the minimization of vaccination discomfort for children.