Collaboration: Decoding vaccine trust for the Chinese context

The Vaccine Trust Project was recently invited to partner with a team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The team are embarking on an exciting piece of work, which will see the adaptation and deployment of The Vaccine Trust Framework in the Chinese context. This is a timely addition to the immunisation landscape, and will inform how to best adapt The Trust Framework to new contexts.

Below we share a summary of the ambitious project, kindly written by Xiaolong Wang.

—

“Trust is universal, but how it is understood and measured can vary across cultural and healthcare settings.”

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University – Vaccine Trust Framework (VTF-C) Research Team, based at the School of Nursing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is collaborating with the Vaccine Trust Project to adapt the Vaccine Trust Framework (VTF) for use in the Chinese context. The goal of this is to ensure that the framework remains conceptually robust while being culturally and systemically appropriate for local application.

Simply translating the VTF into Chinese is not sufficient. In China, ongoing efforts to strengthen primary and community-based healthcare services shape how vaccination services are delivered and experienced. In addition, vaccination decisions may involve family discussion alongside individual choice. These contextual features highlight the importance of careful cultural adaptation of the vaccine trust survey, rather than direct linguistic translation.

To achieve this, the team is following a rigorous five-phase validation roadmap. The process began with forward and back translation using a modified Brislin model to ensure semantic and conceptual equivalence. The project is now entering an expert consultation phase, engaging specialists in public health, psychology, and nursing to assess content relevance. Subsequent steps will include cognitive interviewing to refine item clarity, followed by large-scale psychometric validation.

Kick of meeting between researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of New South Wales, and ReD Associates.

Current progress: The team has completed the initial translation and preliminary adaptation of the Chinese version of the framework (VTF-C) and is currently progressing through expert review. The long-term aim is to support high-quality evidence generation on vaccine trust within diverse Chinese populations and to contribute to global dialogue on trust measurement.
—

The Vaccine Trust Project are very motivated by this project and the data it will introduce into the immunisation ecosystem. We hope to work with our friends at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to better understand trust, develop a new culturally adapted tool, and learn how to better adapt the work we do.

We hope to share more exciting updates as the project matures.