Cargando…
Knowledge on Parental Hesitancy toward COVID-19 Vaccination of Children 5–11 Years Old
Although vaccines are the safest and the most effective measure to prevent disease, disability, and death from various pediatric infectious diseases, parental vaccine hesitancy is a common and increasing phenomenon worldwide. To contribute to improving our knowledge on parental willingness and hesit...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10051409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36992171 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030587 |
_version_ | 1785014879161155584 |
---|---|
author | Esposito, Susanna Rosafio, Cristiano Partesotti, Simonetta Fiore, Michele Antodaro, Francesco Bergomi, Andrea Neglia, Cosimo Argentiero, Alberto Principi, Nicola Zona, Stefano |
author_facet | Esposito, Susanna Rosafio, Cristiano Partesotti, Simonetta Fiore, Michele Antodaro, Francesco Bergomi, Andrea Neglia, Cosimo Argentiero, Alberto Principi, Nicola Zona, Stefano |
author_sort | Esposito, Susanna |
collection | PubMed |
description | Although vaccines are the safest and the most effective measure to prevent disease, disability, and death from various pediatric infectious diseases, parental vaccine hesitancy is a common and increasing phenomenon worldwide. To contribute to improving our knowledge on parental willingness and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccine administration in children aged 5–11 years, an anonymous online questionnaire was disseminated in Italy after the COVID-19 vaccine’s authorization for this age group. An online survey was conducted using the Crowd Signal platform from 15 December 2021 to 15 January 2022 in Italy among parents of children 5–11 years old. A total of 3433 questionnaires were analyzed. Overall, a “Favorable” position was observed in 1459 (42.5%) parents, a “Doubtful” one in 1223 (35.6%) and a “Hesitant/Reluctant” one in 751 (21.9%). The univariate multinomial logistic regression analysis and the multivariate multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that the Hesitant/Reluctant parents were younger than 40 years of age, mostly female, with a secondary or middle school degree, an annual income below EUR 28,000, more than one child in the age range from 5 to 11 years, an underestimated consideration of the severity of COVID-19’s effects, and concern regarding the COVID-19 vaccines in general. These results show that in Italy, most parents of children aged 5 to 11 were doubtful or hesitant/reluctant to vaccinate their children against the COVID-19 virus. Poor trust in health institutions as well as poor consideration of the epidemiological and clinical relevance of COVID-19 in children seem to have played the biggest roles in forming these attitudes. Moreover, the negative attitude of several parents who previously agreed to immunize their children against other childhood illnesses according to the official national pediatric immunization schedule clearly indicates that only the COVID-19 vaccine was put in doubt or rejected. All these findings lead us to conclude that to improve COVID-19 vaccination coverage in children aged 5 to 11, health authorities should increase parental education on the true clinical relevance of COVID-19 and on the importance of its prevention to hinder the evolution of the pandemic in pediatric subjects and the emergence of new variants, and its relative weight in influencing the efficacy of vaccines. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10051409 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100514092023-03-30 Knowledge on Parental Hesitancy toward COVID-19 Vaccination of Children 5–11 Years Old Esposito, Susanna Rosafio, Cristiano Partesotti, Simonetta Fiore, Michele Antodaro, Francesco Bergomi, Andrea Neglia, Cosimo Argentiero, Alberto Principi, Nicola Zona, Stefano Vaccines (Basel) Article Although vaccines are the safest and the most effective measure to prevent disease, disability, and death from various pediatric infectious diseases, parental vaccine hesitancy is a common and increasing phenomenon worldwide. To contribute to improving our knowledge on parental willingness and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccine administration in children aged 5–11 years, an anonymous online questionnaire was disseminated in Italy after the COVID-19 vaccine’s authorization for this age group. An online survey was conducted using the Crowd Signal platform from 15 December 2021 to 15 January 2022 in Italy among parents of children 5–11 years old. A total of 3433 questionnaires were analyzed. Overall, a “Favorable” position was observed in 1459 (42.5%) parents, a “Doubtful” one in 1223 (35.6%) and a “Hesitant/Reluctant” one in 751 (21.9%). The univariate multinomial logistic regression analysis and the multivariate multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that the Hesitant/Reluctant parents were younger than 40 years of age, mostly female, with a secondary or middle school degree, an annual income below EUR 28,000, more than one child in the age range from 5 to 11 years, an underestimated consideration of the severity of COVID-19’s effects, and concern regarding the COVID-19 vaccines in general. These results show that in Italy, most parents of children aged 5 to 11 were doubtful or hesitant/reluctant to vaccinate their children against the COVID-19 virus. Poor trust in health institutions as well as poor consideration of the epidemiological and clinical relevance of COVID-19 in children seem to have played the biggest roles in forming these attitudes. Moreover, the negative attitude of several parents who previously agreed to immunize their children against other childhood illnesses according to the official national pediatric immunization schedule clearly indicates that only the COVID-19 vaccine was put in doubt or rejected. All these findings lead us to conclude that to improve COVID-19 vaccination coverage in children aged 5 to 11, health authorities should increase parental education on the true clinical relevance of COVID-19 and on the importance of its prevention to hinder the evolution of the pandemic in pediatric subjects and the emergence of new variants, and its relative weight in influencing the efficacy of vaccines. MDPI 2023-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC10051409/ /pubmed/36992171 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030587 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Esposito, Susanna Rosafio, Cristiano Partesotti, Simonetta Fiore, Michele Antodaro, Francesco Bergomi, Andrea Neglia, Cosimo Argentiero, Alberto Principi, Nicola Zona, Stefano Knowledge on Parental Hesitancy toward COVID-19 Vaccination of Children 5–11 Years Old |
title | Knowledge on Parental Hesitancy toward COVID-19 Vaccination of Children 5–11 Years Old |
title_full | Knowledge on Parental Hesitancy toward COVID-19 Vaccination of Children 5–11 Years Old |
title_fullStr | Knowledge on Parental Hesitancy toward COVID-19 Vaccination of Children 5–11 Years Old |
title_full_unstemmed | Knowledge on Parental Hesitancy toward COVID-19 Vaccination of Children 5–11 Years Old |
title_short | Knowledge on Parental Hesitancy toward COVID-19 Vaccination of Children 5–11 Years Old |
title_sort | knowledge on parental hesitancy toward covid-19 vaccination of children 5–11 years old |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10051409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36992171 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030587 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT espositosusanna knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT rosafiocristiano knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT partesottisimonetta knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT fioremichele knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT antodarofrancesco knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT bergomiandrea knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT negliacosimo knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT argentieroalberto knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT principinicola knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold AT zonastefano knowledgeonparentalhesitancytowardcovid19vaccinationofchildren511yearsold |