Parents' Decisions to Vaccinate Children against COVID-19: A Scoping Review



Pan, Fengming, Zhao, Hongyu, Nicholas, Stephen, Maitland, Elizabeth ORCID: 0000-0003-1551-4787, Liu, Rugang and Hou, Qingzhen
(2021) Parents' Decisions to Vaccinate Children against COVID-19: A Scoping Review. VACCINES, 9 (12). 1476-.

Access the full-text of this item by clicking on the Open Access link.

Abstract

Since 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in sickness, hospitalizations, and deaths of the old and young and impacted global social and economy activities. Vaccination is one of the most important and efficient ways to protect against the COVID-19 virus. In a review of the literature on parents' decisions to vaccinate their children, we found that widespread vaccination was hampered by vaccine hesitancy, especially for children who play an important role in the coronavirus transmission in both family and school. To analyze parent vaccination decision-making for children, our review of the literature on parent attitudes to vaccinating children, identified the objective and subjective influencing factors in their vaccination decision. We found that the median rate of parents vaccinating their children against COVID-19 was 59.3% (IQR 48.60~73.90%). The factors influencing parents' attitudes towards child vaccination were heterogeneous, reflecting country-specific factors, but also displaying some similar trends across countries, such as the education level of parents. The leading reason in the child vaccination decision was to protect children, family and others; and the fear of side effects and safety was the most important reason in not vaccinating children. Our study informs government and health officials about appropriate vaccination policies and measures to improve the vaccination rate of children and makes specific recommendations on enhancing child vaccinate rates.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy, acceptance, willingness, children, scoping review
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 25 May 2022 10:33
Last Modified: 01 May 2023 09:12
DOI: 10.3390/vaccines9121476
Open Access URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/12/1476
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3155462