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. 2022 Jun 29;22(1):1265.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13682-z.

The willingness of parents to vaccinate their children younger than 12 years against COVID-19: a cross-sectional study in Malaysia

Diana-Leh-Ching Ng  1 , Gin-Gin Gan  2 , Chee-Shee Chai  1 , Nur Adila Bt Anuar  2 , Woweham Sindeh  3 , Wei-Jing Chua  2 , Asri B Said  1 , Seng-Beng Tan  4
Affiliations

The willingness of parents to vaccinate their children younger than 12 years against COVID-19: a cross-sectional study in Malaysia

Diana-Leh-Ching Ng et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The initiation of a new drug, for instance, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine in children could be a source of major concern for parents. This study aims to determine the willingness of parents in Malaysia to vaccinate their children younger than 12 years against COVID-19.

Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted nationwide in Malaysia from August 29, 2021, to October 17, 2021. Parents with children younger than 12 years were enrolled via the snowball sampling method.

Results: The analysis included data from 3,528 parents (79.5%) of the 4,438 survey responses received. Of these parents, 2,598 (73.6%) were willing, 486 (13.8%) were not willing, and 444 (12.6%) were still hesitant to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Single parents (odds ratio [OR], 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.32-3.04; P = 0.001), parents with secondary or lower education (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.21-1.96; P < 0.001), healthcare workers (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.34-2.26; P < 0.001), parents who had significant contact with COVID-19 (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.09-1.63; P = 0.006), and parents who had been vaccinated against COVID-19 (OR, 15.4; 95% CI, 9.76-24.33; P < 0.001) were found more willing to immunize their children. The common reasons for vaccination given by parents who were willing to immunize their children include protection of children (99.4%), protection of other family members (99.3%), and effectiveness (98.2%). The common reasons against vaccination given by parents who were not willing to immunize their children were uncertainty about the new vaccine (96.1%), concerns about vaccine contents (93.2%), limited vaccine information from physicians (82.3%), and the belief of vaccine was unsafe (79.8%).

Conclusions: In this study, nearly three-quarters of parents were willing to vaccinate their children younger than 12 years against COVID-19. The parents' history of COVID-19 vaccination was the strongest independent predictor of their willingness to vaccinate their children. Therefore, future health education for the COVID-19 vaccine should focus on parents who are prone to vaccine refusal or hesitation, address the common reasons for vaccine refusal, and highlight the vaccine's benefits.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine; Children; Vaccine acceptance; Vaccine hesitancy; Vaccine refusal.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest in respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Reasons given by parents that were willing to vaccinate their children younger than 12 years against COVID-19
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Reasons given by parents that were not willing to vaccinate their children younger than 12 years against COVID-19
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Factors that parents who were still hesitant would like to consider before allowing their children younger than -12 years to be vaccinated against COVID-19
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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