Assessment of caregiver willingness to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

Figures & data

Table 1. Participants demographic characteristics

Demographic variable	Frequency (%)
Do you have children?
Yes	508 (87.4%)
Participating parent in this survey?
Father	225 (38.7%
Mother	356 (61.3%)
Age
18–29 years	78 (13.4%)
30–39 years	265 (45.6%)
40–49 years	154 (26.5%)
50–59 years	62 (10.7%)
60 years and above	22 (3.8%)
Marital status:
Married	550 (94.7%)
Unmarried (divorced or widowed)	31 (5.3%)
Area of residence:
Eastern of Saudi Arabia	16 (2.8%)
Western of Saudi Arabia	498 (85.7%)
Middle of Saudi Arabia	55 (9.5%)
Northern of Saudi Arabia	2 (0.3%)
Southern of Saudi Arabia	10 (1.7%)
Educational level:
Junior high school or below	28 (4.8%)
High school graduate or equivalent	57 (9.8%)
College or equivalent	371 (63.9%)
Master’s Diploma or above	125 (21.5%)
History of chronic disease
Yes	68 (11.7%)
Family member with one or more chronic disease
Yes	222 (38.2%)
Did you get COVID-19 vaccine?
Yes	418 (71.9%)
Do you advise others to receive the COVID-19 vaccine?
Yes	416 (71.6%)

Table 2. Child information

Variable	Frequency (%)
Number of children:
One	126 (21.7%)
Two	207 (35.6%)
Three	105 (18.1%)
Four	74 (12.7%)
Five	30 (5.2%)
More than 5	39 (6.7%)
Age of the children (multiple answers question)
< 2 years	102 (17.6%)
2–6 years	215 (37.0%)
7–12 years	359 (61.8%)
13–17 years	123 (21.2%)
Have your child/children received their vaccines up to date?
Yes	529 (91.0%)
Do you have any vaccine refusal history?
Yes	22 (3.8%)
No	559 (96.2%)
If yes, why? (n = 22)
According to published articles about its harmful effect	5 (22.7%)
I don’t believe in the benefit of vaccine	4 (18.2%)
Allergy	3 (13.6%)
Influenza vaccine because it was not suitable	1 (4.5%)
Due to young age	1 (4.5%)
Will the child’s age affect your decision (example: it’s unsafe to vaccinate your infant/ toddler)?
Yes	374 (64.4%)

Figure 1. Perception about COVID-19 vaccine for children among parents in Saudi Arabia.

Figure 2. Reasons of hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccine for children among parents in Saudi Arabia.

Table 3. Attitude toward the vaccine

Acceptance of the vaccine
Item	Frequency (%)
If COVID-19 vaccine is available, will you vaccinate your child?
Yes	371 (63.9%)
Do you want your child to be the first population to receive the COVID-19 vaccine?
Yes	231 (39.8%)
Will you vaccinate your child against influenza this year?
Yes	139 (23.9%)
Causes of action
I will only let my child take the COVID-19 vaccine if I was given adequate information about it	4.8%	11.0%	29.0%	34.3%	21.0%
I will only let my child take the COVID-19 vaccine if it was made mandatory	9.5%	21.9%	29.0%	29.9%	9.8%
I will only let my child take the COVID-19 vaccine if the vaccine is taken by many children in the public	8.1%	19.3%	32.9%	24.6%	15.1%
Perceived benefits
Vaccination would ease the precautionary measures including lock down, quarantine, work permit and travel ban	5.3%	9.6%	30.2%	30.5%	24.4%
Vaccination decreases my child chance of getting COVID-19 or its complication	5.5%	11.2%	28.8%	32.5%	22.0%
Complications of COVID-19 will be decrease significantly if my child received the vaccine.	6.7%	11.5%	30.0%	29.8%	22.0%
If my child take the vaccine that would make me less worried about catching COVID-19	7.9%	15.5%	28.1%	29.9%	18.6%

Table 4. Predictors of vaccination acceptance

Demographic variable	Odds ratio (95%CI)
Participating parent in this survey?
Mother (Reference group)	1.00
Father	1.00 (0.67–1.51)
Age
18–29 years (Reference group)	1.00
30–39 years	1.02 (0.71–1.46)
40–49 years	0.99 (0.67–1.45)
50–59 years	0.59 (0.35–1.01)
60 years and above	0.87 (0.36–2.14)
Marital status:
Unmarried (divorced or widowed) (Reference group)	1.00
Married	1.55 (0.74–3.26)
Area of residence:
Eastern of Saudi Arabia (Reference group)	1.00
Western of Saudi Arabia	0.72 (0.05–11.5)
Middle of Saudi Arabia	0.69 (0.39–1.21)
Northern of Saudi Arabia	0.71 (0.26–1.92)
Southern of Saudi Arabia	2.54 (0.52–12.32)
Educational level:
Junior high school or below (Reference group)	1.00
High school graduate or equivalent	0.69 (0.39–1.21)
College or equivalent	0.91 (0.66–1.27)
Master’s Diploma or above	0.96 (0.63–1.46)
History of chronic disease
No (Reference group)	1.00
Yes	0.67 (0.40–1.14)
Family member with one or more chronic disease
No (Reference group)	1.00
Yes	1.23 (0.85–1.78)
Did you get COVID-19 vaccine?
No (Reference group)	1.00
Yes	1.09 (0.68–1.74)
Do you advise others to receive the COVID-19 vaccine?
No (Reference group)	1.00
Yes	0.74 (0.46–1.19)
Number of children:
One (Reference group)	1.00
Two	1.03 (0.68–1.55)
Three	0.72 (0.47–1.12)
Four	0.81 (0.49–1.34)
Five	1.46 (0.67–3.18)
More than 5	0.42 (0.21–0.86)*
Have your child/children received their vaccines up to date?
No (Reference group)
Yes	1.13 (0.62–2.06)

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article.