Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Oct 6, 2020
Date Accepted: Dec 8, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Dec 16, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination for children under the age of 18 years in China: cross-sectional online survey
ABSTRACT
Background:
It is expected that COVID-19 vaccines would become available in China by the end of 2020. Vaccinating children against COVID-19 would contribute to the control of the pandemic and recover of global economy. For children under the age of 18 years, parents are usually the decision makers regarding their children’s vaccination.
Objective:
This study investigated parental acceptability of free COVID-19 vaccination for children under the age of 18 years in China.
Methods:
This is a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional closed online survey among 2053 factory workers in Shenzhen, China during September 1-7, 2020. Participants of the online survey were full-time employees aged ≥18 years who had resumed work in factories in Shenzhen. Factory workers in Shenzhen are required to receive physical examination once a year. Eligible workers attending six designated physical examination sites were invited to complete an online survey. This study was based on a sub-sample of those who had at least one child under the age of 18 years (n=1052). Multivariate logistic regression models were fitted.
Results:
Among the parents, the prevalence of parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination for their children was 72.5% (n=764). After adjusting for significant background characteristics, positive attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination (adjusted odds ratios [AOR] 1.70, 95%CI 1.50-1.91), perceived family member would support them to have their children taken up COVID-19 vaccination (perceived subjective norm) (AOR 4.18, 95%CI 3.21-5.43), and perceived behavioral control to have the children taken up COVID-19 vaccination (AOR 1.84, 95%CI 1.49-2.26) were associated with higher parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination. Regarding social media influence, higher exposure to positive information related to COVID-19 vaccination was associated with higher parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination (AOR 1.35, 95%CI 1.17-1.56). Higher exposure to negative information related to COVID-19 vaccination was negatively associated with the dependent variable (AOR 0.85, 95%CI 0.74-0.99).
Conclusions:
Parental acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination for their children aged under 18 years was high in China. The Theory of Planned Behavior is a useful framework to guide the development of future campaigns promoting COVID-19 vaccination targeting parents. Transparency in communicating about vaccine development process and vaccine safety testing is important. Public health authorities should also address misinformation in a timely manner.
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