Investigating the predictors of COVID-19 vaccine decision-making among parents of children aged 5-11 in the UK.

Autor: Davey SA; Department of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB, UK., Hampson C; Department of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB, UK., Christodoulaki ME; Independent Scholar., Gaffiero D; Department of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB, UK. Electronic address: d.gaffiero@derby.ac.uk.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Vaccine [Vaccine] 2024 Sep 17; Vol. 42 (22), pp. 126021. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jun 14.
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.05.069
Abstrakt: Background: The global effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the pivotal role of vaccination in public health, particularly considering emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 variants. While priority has been given to immunising vulnerable populations, children remain a significant unvaccinated group, prompting NHS England to include them in their new vaccination strategy. The role parents play in child healthcare decisions, specifically regarding COVID-19 vaccination, is crucial, and the Health Belief Model (HBM) provides a framework for understanding parental vaccination behaviour.
Methods: To investigate the predictors influencing parental decision-making for COVID-19 vaccination in children aged 5-11, an online cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst parents (n = 206) living in the UK aged > 18, with one or more children aged 5-11. The present study measured HBM constructs, demographic factors, vaccine hesitancy and vaccine decision-making self-efficacy. Binomial logistic regression was used to analyse the responses of 206 participants using the child vaccination status (vaccinated vs. unvaccinated) as the outcome variable.
Findings: The regression model significantly predicted child vaccination status, identifying perceived barriers, cues to action and parent age as significant predictors. Higher cues to action and older parent age increased the likelihood of child vaccination, while greater perceived barriers decreased it. The model achieved 80.8 % overall accuracy by correctly identifying 87.6 % of vaccinated cases and 69.4 % of unvaccinated cases, demonstrating high accuracy in predicting parental vaccination decisions.
Conclusion: The present study contributes to our understanding of the factors shaping parental decision-making regarding COVID-19 child vaccination, highlighting the impact of perceived barriers, cues to action and parent age. Future public health campaigns should address the specific barriers faced by parents, emphasise external cues to action and tailor messaging to acknowledge age-related differences in parental vaccine decision-making. By addressing the aforementioned factors influencing parental behaviour regarding child vaccination, future interventions can increase the number of children vaccinated against COVID-19, preventing transmission, protecting from severe illness and contributing to the NHS vaccination strategy.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE