Attitudes of Parents with Regard to Vaccination of Children against COVID-19 in Poland. A Nationwide Online Survey

Abstract

Within a few months, the scientific world achieved a great success, developing effective and safe vaccines against COVID-19. Many countries with full access to vaccines have introduced recommendations for the vaccination of not only people who are at risk of developing severe COVID-19, i.e., the elderly and chronically ill, but all members of society, including children aged 12 and above as the currently registered preparations can be used above the said age. However, the use of COVID-19 vaccines in children arouses strong emotions, with their sense being frequently questioned. The aim of the paper was to assess the attitudes of Polish parents with regard to vaccinations against COVID-19 administered to their children. The study was conducted with the use of the authors’ original questionnaire, which was distributed online. The questionnaire was completed 4732 times, and 4432 surveys were qualified for the final analysis. The vast majority of the respondents were women (77.6%), people aged 36–44 (40.3%), with higher education (86.2%) and people living in the city with more than 250,000 inhabitants (48%). The mean age of the study group was 37.5 ± 6.61 years. Out of the studied group, 28.2% of parents are healthcare professionals. The study was conducted prior to the EMA’s decision that permitted the use of BNT162b2 in children. Results: The vast majority of the respondents were mothers, who showed significantly more favorable attitudes toward the vaccinations than fathers. Forty-four percent of parents want to vaccinate their children as soon as possible, while every fourth parent does not want to vaccinate their child at all. Main concerns about the vaccines include concerns that the preparation has not been adequately tested and that it is ineffective, as well as the lack of information concerning potential complications in the future. The main sources of information on childhood vaccinations are the media, including the Internet and television. Vaccination of the pediatric population against COVID-19 raises many emotions and doubts in parents and it is also debated by experts. The decision to vaccinate should rest on child’s parents. Both the individual benefits of protection against COVID-19 and the population benefits of pandemic control must be considered. There is a need for ongoing monitoring of the safety of administering COVID-19 vaccinations in children, as well as for evaluating their effectiveness and benefits in reducing individual risk of severe course of COVID-19 and complications after this disease, and for evaluating the population benefits of vaccines in children.

COVID-19 Pediatric Vaccine Hesitancy among Racially Diverse Parents in the United States

“…In October 2021, 2 weeks prior to the anticipated FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccination of children between the ages of 5 and 11 years, only 41% of a racially and ethnically diverse national sample of female guardians planned to have their young children vaccinated, 25% were unsure, and 34% were unwilling. This percentage is consistent with most prior reports of COVID-19 vaccination rates for children 12-17 years of age and anticipated rates for the emergency use approval for children 5-11 years of age [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. However, rates significantly differed across racial/ethnic groups with 62% of non-Hispanic Asian parents compared to 31% non-Hispanic Black, 45% Hispanic, and 25% non-Hispanic White planning to vaccinate their child following FDA approval.…”

“…Since the vaccine was approved for children 12-17 years of age, US vaccination rates for this age group have been reported at 42% for the first dose and 32% for series completion [6]. Emerging data on parental intentions to have their 5-11-year-old children vaccinated for COVID-19 following FDA approval have reported similar rates ranging from 44% to 63% in the U.S. [7][8][9][10] and these are consistent with data from across the globe [11][12][13][14][15]. These percentages are troubling since population modeling indicates that vaccinating adolescents and children could reduce overall COVID-related mortality and case load [16].…”

Parents’ and Guardians’ Willingness to Vaccinate Their Children against COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Compared to women, men were more likely to accept the vaccination in ten studies [22,24,25,[27][28][29][32][33][34][35]. However, women's acceptance rate was higher in the studies of Babicki and Wan [36,37].…”

“…The age of parents and guardians was possibly a significant predictor associated with vaccination willingness [16,21,22,26,28,36,38,39]. Parents and guardians aged < 30 were less likely to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 compared to those aged > 30 (OR: 0.6450, 95% CI: 0.4531-0.9180).…”

“…The association between perceived susceptibility and severity of COVID-19 and vaccination acceptance was reported in nine studies. Eight studies found a positive relationship between perceived infection risk and severity and vaccine willingness [29,30,33,34,36,37,39,41]. Only one study showed the perception of COVID-19 disease risk and severity was not a significant factor in accepting the vaccination [42].…”