Sehgal Neil K R, Rader Benjamin, Gertz Autumn, Astley Christina M, Brownstein John S
Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Institute for Applied Computational Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America.
PLOS Digit Health. 2023 Apr 12;2(4):e0000147. doi: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000147. eCollection 2023 Apr.
COVID-19 vaccination rates among children have stalled, while new coronavirus strains continue to emerge. To improve child vaccination rates, policymakers must better understand parental preferences and reasons for COVID-19 vaccination among their children. Cross-sectional surveys were administered online to 30,174 US parents with at least one child of COVID-19 vaccine eligible age (5-17 years) between January 1 and May 9, 2022. Participants self-reported willingness to vaccinate their child and reasons for refusal, and answered additional questions about demographics, pandemic related behavior, and vaccination status. Willingness to vaccinate a child for COVID-19 was strongly associated with parental vaccination status (multivariate odds ratio 97.9, 95% confidence interval 86.9-111.0). The majority of fully vaccinated (86%) and unvaccinated (84%) parents reported concordant vaccination preferences for their eligible child. Age and education had differing relationships by vaccination status, with higher age and education positively associated with willingness among vaccinated parents. Among all parents unwilling to vaccinate their children, the two most frequently reported reasons were possible side effects (47%) and that vaccines are too new (44%). Unvaccinated parents were much more likely to list a lack of trust in government (41% to 21%, p < .001) and a lack of trust in scientists (34% to 19%, p < .001) as reasons for refusal. Cluster analysis identified three groups of unwilling parents based on their reasons for refusal to vaccinate, with distinct concerns that may be obscured when analyzed in aggregate. Factors associated with willingness to vaccinate children and reasons for refusal may inform targeted approaches to increase vaccination.
儿童新冠疫苗接种率停滞不前，而新冠病毒新毒株却不断出现。为提高儿童疫苗接种率，政策制定者必须更好地了解父母对于为子女接种新冠疫苗的偏好和原因。2022年1月1日至5月9日期间，对30174名有至少一名符合新冠疫苗接种年龄（5至17岁）孩子的美国父母进行了在线横断面调查。参与者自行报告为孩子接种疫苗的意愿及拒绝接种的原因，并回答了有关人口统计学、疫情相关行为和疫苗接种状况的其他问题。为孩子接种新冠疫苗的意愿与父母的疫苗接种状况密切相关（多变量优势比97.9，95%置信区间86.9 - 111.0）。大多数已完全接种疫苗的父母（86%）和未接种疫苗的父母（84%）表示，他们对符合条件的孩子的疫苗接种偏好一致。年龄和教育程度与疫苗接种状况的关系各不相同，年龄较大和受教育程度较高与已接种疫苗的父母的意愿呈正相关。在所有不愿为孩子接种疫苗的父母中，最常提到的两个原因是可能的副作用（47%）和疫苗太新（44%）。未接种疫苗的父母更有可能将对政府缺乏信任（41%对21%，p < 0.001）和对科学家缺乏信任（34%对19%，p < 0.001）列为拒绝接种的原因。聚类分析根据拒绝接种的原因将不愿接种的父母分为三组，这些不同的担忧在综合分析时可能会被掩盖。与为孩子接种疫苗的意愿及拒绝接种原因相关的因素可能为提高疫苗接种率的针对性方法提供参考。
