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Parental concerns on COVID-19 vaccine safety and hesitancy in Korea: Implications for vaccine communication
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Hye-Kyung Cho, Hyunju Lee, Young June Choe, Shinkyeong Kim, Sujin Seo, Jiwon Moon, Eun Hwa Choi, Geun-Yong Kwon, Jee Yeon Shin, Sang-Yoon Choi, Mi Jin Jeong, Myoungsoon You
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Epidemiol Health. 2022;e2023004. Published online December 13, 2022
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2023004
[Accepted]
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 Abstract
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Abstract
Objectives
Vaccination is one of the most important strategies to contain the spread of COVID-19. As vaccination in children is dependent on parents, it is important to understand parents’ awareness and attitudes toward vaccines in order to devise strategies to raise vaccination rates in children.
Methods A web-based nationwide survey was conducted among Korean parents of 7–18- year-old children in August 2021 to estimate parents’ intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 and identify key factors affecting parental acceptance and hesitancy using regression analysis.
Results Approximately 56.4% (575/1,019) were willing to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Contributing factors to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were mothers (aOR 0.36, 95% CI 0.25–0.52), parents with lower education (aOR 0.83, 95% CI 0.70–0.97), hesitancy to other childhood vaccines (aOR 0.78, 95% CI 0.64–0.96), and refusal to vaccinate themselves (aOR 0.08, 95% CI 0.02–0.20). Children of older age (aOR 1.2, 95% CI 1.13–1.28), trust to child’s doctor (aOR 1.19, 95% CI 1.07–1.32),parents who showed positive perception about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 (aOR 2.6, 95% CI 1.9–3.57), and those who reported low risk of COVID-19 vaccine (aOR 1.68, 95% CI 1.27–2.24) were associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. The most common cause of hesitancy was a concern about experiencing adverse reactions.
Conclusions Providing parents with accurate and reliable information on vaccine effectiveness and safety is important to increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccine in children. Differential or targeted approaches to parents according to gender, age and age of children are necessary for effective communication on the vaccination in children.
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Summary
Korean summary
Key Message
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