Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate parents' willingness to vaccinate their children under the age of 18 with a COVID-19 vaccine.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Saudi Arabia from January 2021 to March 2021. The univariate analysis using Mann-Whitney U-test, t-test, and chi-squared/Fisher's exact test was performed to identify sociodemographic factors associated with the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine in children. Factors with statistical significance (p < 0.05) were analyzed using multivariate regression analysis to determine the variables affecting parents' decisions to vaccinate children.
Results: Overall, 44% (167) of parents reported that they would accept vaccinating their children with a COVID-19 vaccine. Young (86; 22.7%), married (135; 35.6%), and Saudi (114; 30%) parents seemed to be more concerned about their children being infected. Parents who intended to vaccinate themselves (OR: 0.599, 95% CI: 0.367-0.980) and who trust the healthcare system (OR: 0.527, 95% CI: 0.327-0.848) reported greater acceptance of children's vaccination. Among parents, the most frequent (40.9%) reason for vaccinating children was to prevent infection in other family members. What may underlie this result is that some parents understand that children can carry pathogens from persons in school to thoseat home. The most frequent (22.2%) reason for refusing vaccination was concerns about the side effects of the vaccine.
Conclusions: Parents have differing opinions on frequencies and risks of coronavirus disease transmission and medical complications and of effectiveness and adverse effects of a vaccine. These results could be of use in designing public health information campaigns and health promotion programs based on perceived parental behavior and positive attitudes.
Keywords: COVID-19; Saudi Arabia; children; pandemic; parents’ willingness; vaccination.