Parental concerns and vaccine hesitancy against COVID-19 vaccination for children in Greece: A cross-sectional survey

•In late 2022, parental intention for childhood COVID-19 vaccination was 43.6%•11.9% of no-vaccination intending parents would do so if recommended by pediatricians.•Children's COVID-19 vaccination was related to reliance on healthcare professionals. Parental hesitancy against children’s COVID-...

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Published in:	Vaccine Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 448 - 454
Main Authors:	Steletou, E., Giannouchos, T., Dimitriou, G., Karatza, A., Sinopidis, X., Maltezou, H.C., Souliotis, K., Gkentzi, D.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 25-01-2024 Elsevier Limited
Subjects:	Adolescent Age Age groups Attitudes Caregivers Child Child, Preschool Children Clinical trials Committees COVID-19 COVID-19 - prevention & control COVID-19 Vaccines Cross-Sectional Studies Data collection FDA approval Greece - epidemiology Health care Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Humans Immunization Influenza Intention Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children Pandemics Parents Parents & parenting Pediatrics Questionnaires Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 Side effects Sociodemographics Surveys Vaccination Vaccination Hesitancy Vaccines Greece COVID-19 FDA SARS-CoV-2 CDC Vaccination Parents Attitudes Intention Children
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Summary:	•In late 2022, parental intention for childhood COVID-19 vaccination was 43.6%•11.9% of no-vaccination intending parents would do so if recommended by pediatricians.•Children's COVID-19 vaccination was related to reliance on healthcare professionals. Parental hesitancy against children’s COVID-19 vaccination remains a challenge globally. Although many studies have explored parental hesitancy, less is known about parental intentions towards COVID-19 vaccination of 6-month to 4-year-old children who were the last age group that became eligible for vaccination and for older children throughout the Omicron predominance period. We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional survey from November to December 2022 in Greece. We aimed to explore parental COVID-19 vaccination intentions for their children, reasons against vaccination, and to estimate the association between parents’ intentions and child and parental characteristics and parental attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. Of 431 parents, 243 (56.4 %) had not or did not intend to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Most parents were vaccinated against COVID-19 (64.7 % no booster; 14.2 % at least one booster). Among parents with children under the age of 5, 13.0 % intended to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, while 47.3 % of parents with children 5 years of age or older reported intention or had already completed vaccination. The most common reasons against COVID-19 vaccination were fear of side effects (32.9 %), perceived short length of clinical trials (29.2 %), and the child having previously contracted COVID-19 (12.0 %). The strongest factors associated with intention or already completed vaccination were parental own vaccination against COVID-19, using a pediatrician or a healthcare professional as the main source of vaccine-related information for their children, agreeing with their pediatrician regarding COVID-19 vaccination, and trusting official healthcare guidelines. Stratified analyses by the two children’s age groups (<5 and 5 to 17) yielded similar estimates. Among parents who had not or did not intend to vaccinate their children, 11.9 % would do so if recommended by a pediatrician. Our findings highlight the need to incentivize healthcare professionals and pediatricians to inform parents about vaccines, clarify misconceptions and address concerns.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0264-410X 1873-2518
DOI:	10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.008