The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics 2023 , Vol 65 , Num 2
Attitudes of parents with children aged 12-18 to COVID-19 vaccines for themselves and their children
Aslıhan Şahin 1 ,Ahu Kara Aksay 1 ,Bahri Aşcı 2 ,Yıldız Ekemen Keleş 1 ,Gülnihan Üstündağ 1 ,Ayşegül Elvan Tüz 1 ,Selin Taşar 1 ,Aslıhan Arslan Maden 1 ,Gülberat İnce 2 ,Ali Kanık 2-3 ,Eda Karadağ Öncel 1 ,Ferhan Elmalı 4 ,Dilek Yılmaz 1-5
1 Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Health Sciences University Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, İzmir
2 Department of Pediatrics, Health Sciences University Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, İzmir
3 Department of Pediatrics, İzmir Katip Çelebi University Faculty of Medicine, İzmir
4 Department of Biostatistics, İzmir Katip Celebi University Faculty of Medicine, İzmir
5 Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, İzmir Katip Celebi University Faculty of Medicine, İzmir, Türkiye
DOI : 10.24953/turkjped.2022.762 Background. The incidence of vaccine hesitancy is increasing in many countries. This study aims to determine parents` attitudes and related factors regarding COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for themselves and their children aged 12-18.

Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on parents between 16th November and 31st December 2021, after COVID-19 vaccines were initiated for children in Türkiye. In the survey, the sociodemographic characteristics of the parents, whether they and their children were vaccinated against COVID-19, and if not, the reasons for this were asked. Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the factors affecting parents` refusal to vaccinate their children for COVID-19.

Results. Three hundred and ninety-six mothers and fathers were included in the final analysis. Overall, 41.7% of parents reported vaccine refusal for their children. COVID-19 vaccine refusal was higher in mothers younger than 35 (β = 6.5, p = 0.002, 95% CI: 2.0-23.1), children aged 15 and younger (β = 2.3, p = 0.001, 95% CI: 1.4-3.7). Concerns about the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine (29.7%) and their children not wanting to be vaccinated (29.0%) were the most common causes of COVID-19 vaccine refusal.

Conclusions. In the present study, the rate of children not vaccinated due to COVID-19 vaccine refusal was relatively high. Parents` concerns about vaccine side effects, as well as their children`s unwillingness to be vaccinated, suggest that both parents and adolescents should be informed about the importance of COVID-19 vaccines. Keywords : COVID-19, vaccine acceptance, parent, children

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