Assessing Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Vaccinating Children (Five to 15 Years Old) Against COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates

Background Since the approval of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine for children in 2021, there had been ongoing debates about the necessity of vaccinating children, owing to the seemingly mild nature of the infection in children, despite causing significant morbidity and mortality in the 5-11 age group in 2020-2021, and its association with complications such as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). This sparked the need to evaluate parents’ perceptions, knowledge, and the effect of information sources on their decision-making. It is important to understand the various drivers and concerns expressed by parents locally, to shape vaccination campaigns to address such issues. While numerous studies across the world have extensively investigated parental willingness and intention to vaccinate children against COVID-19, it is important to acknowledge that these studies have been conducted before COVID-19 vaccines became approved for children in the respective countries. There is an obvious scarcity of data on the parental knowledge, attitudes, and acceptance of the vaccine for children after the respective countries have approved and provided the vaccine. The present study aims to provide data that could reveal possible barriers to vaccine uptake such as deficits in knowledge, negative attitudes, and poor practices towards the COVID-19 pandemic, and hence address these factors to make the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign, as well as future childhood vaccination campaigns, more successful. Methods This is a cross-sectional online-based survey targeting parents living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with children aged 5-15 years. Data collected from June 23 to July 20, 2022 were analyzed using IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 28 software. The survey included questions concerning parental and children demographics, parents’ level and sources of knowledge about COVID-19 infection and vaccine, attitudes of parents about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines, and finally parental practices concerning pandemic preventive measures and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Results Out of 437 participants, 212 (48.5%) vaccinated their children against COVID-19, and of those who did not, only 22 (9.8%) intended to vaccinate. The most commonly cited reason by parents for vaccinating their children was to reduce complications. The most frequent concern was the novelty and lack of information, and consequently, getting more information was the most selected driver to vaccinate as well as being advised by a doctor. Significant predictors were acceptance of childhood and influenza vaccines, trust in vaccine safety and trust in information provided by health authority websites, and lastly, exposure to positive information on social media. Conclusion A considerable proportion of parents have vaccinated their children against COVID-19; however, concerns about novelty and lack of information persist, leading to a high level of vaccine hesitancy. It is imperative that public health efforts maintain momentum, and that pediatricians incorporate parental education on the COVID-19 vaccine for children, which could potentially play a major role in combating vaccine hesitancy.