https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2344-7107
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ABSTRACT
This study investigated parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination for children under the age of 18 years among Chinese parents who are healthcare workers. A closed online survey among full-time doctors or nurses employed by the five collaborative hospitals who had access to smartphones was conducted. Facilitated by the hospital administrators, prospective participants received an invitation sent by the research team via the existing WeChat/QQ groups to complete an online questionnaire. A total of 2,281 participants completed the survey. This study was a sub-analysis of 1332 participants who had at least one child under the age of 18 years. Among the participants, 44.5% reported that they would likely or very likely to have their children under the age of 18 years take up COVID-19 vaccination in the next six months. After adjusting for significant background characteristics, perceived higher vaccine efficacy, longer protection duration, perceived high/very high chance for China to prevent another wave of COVID-19 outbreak with vaccines in place and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccination for themselves were associated with higher parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination. At interpersonal level, higher frequency of information exposure through social media and direct interpersonal communication were associated with higher parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination, while knowing some people who experienced serious side effects following COVID-19 vaccination were associated with lower parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination. Despite their important roles in vaccination promotion, Chinese doctors and nurses showed low parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination. Effective health promotion is needed when COVID-19 vaccination become available.
Acknowledgments
The study was supported by the internal research funding of the Centre for Health Behaviours Research. We would like to thank, Lihui Zhu of Hunan Children’s Hospital, Huifang Tan of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanhua University, Xiaojun Chen of the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Ling Guo of Yunnan Kungang Hospital, Lijun Zhu of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture People’s Hospital, and Huixia Lu of the First Affiliated Hospital of Dali University for their assistance in data collection.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Contributor
Author RS, XC, LLP, LLJ, ZH, and JTFL designed the study and wrote the protocol. Author RS and JTFL designed the questionnaire. ZW developed the analytical plan. Author RS, XC, LLP, LLJ, ZH supervised the data collection process. Author ZW analyzed and interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript. Author JTFL revised the manuscript critically and finalized the paper. All authors contributed to and approved the final manuscript.