Perception of Parents Towards COVID-19 Vaccine for Children in Saudi Population

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease that is caused by severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). With the rapid spread of this pandemic, vaccination has been a breakthrough solution. At the time of conducting the study, COVID-19 vaccines were only approved for adults 18 years and older. Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess the parents’ likelihood of vaccinating their children once the recommendation for pediatric vaccination is established. Methods This was a cross-sectional study in which a self-administered survey was distributed to all parents visiting National Guard primary healthcare centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaires were distributed to parents attending primary care clinics. Data collected in the questionnaire include demographics (gender, marital status, educational level, and age), questions assessing parental perception towards the COVID-19 vaccine, and willingness to offer the vaccine to their children. Results A total of 333 respondents completed the survey with a response rate of 83.3%. Half of the participants were males and the other half were females with the majority (45.6%) aged between 31 and 40 years old. In terms of parental acceptability of vaccinating their children against COVID-19, 53.7% of the parents were willing to vaccinate their children as opposed to 27% who were reluctant to do so. Of those who refused, 97.5% and 96.6% cited lack of information and evidence, respectively, as the most common reasons for not accepting COVID-19 vaccine. We have found that age of the parents, especially those 31-40 years old, age of their children, especially 4-12 years old, and previous acceptance of the seasonal influenza vaccine were significantly associated with higher parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccine. In contrast, gender, marital status and educational level were not statistically significant factors. Conclusion As COVID-19 spread globally and made people's lives in danger, vaccination became a highly important measure to halt the spread of the disease. Parents are now given the choice of protecting their beloved children from COVID-19 infection and its possible complications. Based on our findings, we noticed that majority of parents are going to vaccinate their children. In addition, some certain age groups of parents and children were significantly associated with decreased vaccine hesitancy to take the COVID-19 vaccine.