Attitudes of Suburban Kansan Parents Regarding School-Required Immunizations and the Influences of the Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction. Understanding parental attitudes and adherence of recommended childhood vaccination schedules adopts a new level of importance in the era of the Sars-CoV-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. With hopes for release of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine within the near future, understanding parental perception of vaccines is important to design successful vaccination interventions. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was administered to approximately 900 parents in the state of Kansas in May, 2020. Pearson chi square and Mann-Whitney U tests were utilized to analyze the assess the attitudes of Kansas parents towards a potential addition of the influenza vaccine to the required list for K-12 students and furthermore, their general perception of vaccinations, and the impact of COVID-19 on those beliefs. Results. 179 responded. 51% (n=92) were in favor of adding the influenza vaccine to the mandatory list (Pro-Addition). Anti-Addition parents had significantly higher levels of distrust (2.1, p<0.001) and were significantly more concerned about vaccine adverse effects. When presented with a hypothetical situation in which a “safe and effective” COVID-19 vaccine was available, these parents were significantly less likely to indicate they would receive the vaccine or obtain it for their children (53 people, p<0.001). Conclusions. Pro-Addition and Anti-Addition parents are markedly split on their attitudes towards the addition and the effects of the pandemic. Follow-up qualitative studies of Anti-Addition parents are critical for successful vaccine distribution and coverage in the communities.

Parental Willingness and Associated Factors of Pediatric Vaccination in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Several limitations were reported by the included studies. Methodological issues included (1) being unable to establish a causal relationship due to the cross-sectional study design [21,23,30,33], (2) nonprobabilistic sampling that would limit the generalizability of the findings [16][17][18][20][21][22][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], (3) small sample size that would result in limited statistical power [22], (4) limited factors being investigated [16,25,28,35]. Self-reported data by parents/caregivers/guardians might cause recall bias, self-selection bias, and social desirability bias [16,18,22,[26][27][28][29]31], and it might not represent children's willingness [28,29].…”

HPV and COVID-19 vaccines: Social media use, confidence, and intentions among parents living in different community types in the United States

“…One study found that suburban clinics had higher HPV vaccination rates than those in urban areas (Chou et al, 2011 ), while another found suburban areas to have higher rates of HPV vaccination than rural and urban areas (Markovitz et al, 2011 ). COVID-19 vaccine research exploring parents and community type is even more limited (Beatty & Villwock, 2021 ; McElfish et al, 2021 ). There is a need to better understand the role of community type to develop effective interventions.…”