Children’s rates of COVID-19 vaccination as reported by parents, vaccine hesitancy, and determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among children: a multi-country study from the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Khatatbeh, Moawiah; Albalas, Samir; Khatatbeh, Haitham; Momani, Waleed; Melhem, Omar; Omari, Omar Al; Tarhini, Zeinab; A’aqoulah, Ashraf; Al‐Jubouri, Mohammed Baqer; Nashwan, Abdulqadir J.; Adwan, Ghaleb; Altaany, Zaid; Nashwan, Ayat; Al-Waqfi, Khaled; Abuirsheid, Lujain; Ayasreh, Raghad; Mutairi, Mohammed Al; Al-Tammemi, Ala’a B.

doi:10.1186/s12889-022-13798-2

Cited by 46 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Our reported rate of COVID-19 vaccine uptake in children at 48.5% is in concordance with a recently published regional study across eight Eastern Mediterranean countries, revealing an interestingly similar rate at 48.9% in the UAE [22]. This similarity in results provides a valuable insight into the progression, or lack thereof, of the vaccination campaign in children, given that the latter study was carried out from November to December of 2021, a few months before the timeframe of our present study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Assessing Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Vaccinating Children (Five to 15 Years Old) Against COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates

Bourguiba¹,

AbuHijleh²,

Nached³

et al. 2022

Cureus

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BackgroundSince the approval of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine for children in 2021, there had been ongoing debates about the necessity of vaccinating children, owing to the seemingly mild nature of the infection in children, despite causing significant morbidity and mortality in the 5-11 age group in 2020-2021, and its association with complications such as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). This sparked the need to evaluate parents' perceptions, knowledge, and the effect of information sources on their decision-making. It is important to understand the various drivers and concerns expressed by parents locally, to shape vaccination campaigns to address such issues. While numerous studies across the world have extensively investigated parental willingness and intention to vaccinate children against COVID-19, it is important to acknowledge that these studies have been conducted before COVID-19 vaccines became approved for children in the respective countries. There is an obvious scarcity of data on the parental knowledge, attitudes, and acceptance of the vaccine for children after the respective countries have approved and provided the vaccine. The present study aims to provide data that could reveal possible barriers to vaccine uptake such as deficits in knowledge, negative attitudes, and poor practices towards the COVID-19 pandemic, and hence address these factors to make the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign, as well as future childhood vaccination campaigns, more successful. MethodsThis is a cross-sectional online-based survey targeting parents living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with children aged 5-15 years. Data collected from June 23 to July 20, 2022 were analyzed using IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 28 software. The survey included questions concerning parental and children demographics, parents' level and sources of knowledge about COVID-19 infection and vaccine, attitudes of parents about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines, and finally parental practices concerning pandemic preventive measures and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. ResultsOut of 437 participants, 212 (48.5%) vaccinated their children against COVID-19, and of those who did not, only 22 (9.8%) intended to vaccinate. The most commonly cited reason by parents for vaccinating their children was to reduce complications. The most frequent concern was the novelty and lack of information, and consequently, getting more information was the most selected driver to vaccinate as well as being advised by a doctor. Significant predictors were acceptance of childhood and influenza vaccines, trust in vaccine safety and trust in information provided by health authority websites, and lastly, exposure to positive information on social media. ConclusionA considerable proportion of parents have vaccinated their children against COVID-19; however, concerns about novelty and lack of information persist, leading to a high level of vaccine hesitancy. It is imperative that public health efforts maintain mome...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Assessing Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Vaccinating Children (Five to 15 Years Old) Against COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates

Bourguiba¹,

AbuHijleh²,

Nached³

et al. 2022

Cureus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Quite a large percentage of the local population were hesitant to take the vaccine. Alternatively, Syrian refugees show high willingness to vaccinate their children, with only 13.9% unwilling to do so, which is very low compared with other studies reporting high unwillingness of parents from Arab countries to vaccinate their children [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Vulnerable Groups: Syrian Refugees in Jordan

et al. 2022

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Despite the wide distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, refugees remain last in line for the intake of vaccines. Syrian refugees in Jordan reach up to 700,000 registered and almost up to 700,000 unregistered refugees. This study aims to assess the willingness of Syrian refugees in Jordan to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Participants in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan were invited through social media to complete the survey between January and March 2022. A total of 230 refugees participated in our study, with almost half the participants of male gender. The majority of the participants had secondary school as their highest education level and were unemployed, being below the social poverty line. Interestingly, Syrian refugees showed a high vaccine acceptance rate, as 89.6% were willing to take the vaccine. Moreover, they showed high knowledge regarding the vaccine, the disease, and the virus. Our findings highlight the importance of knowledge and awareness of the COVID-19 vaccine to increase the acceptance rate. This is very important as refugees represent a vulnerable group to infection and complications and require close attention, especially with their significant numbers in Jordon and challenges of providing adequate vaccine supplies at their camps. We hope that, with proper dissemination of knowledge and awareness and with easy accessibility to the vaccines, it will ensure high immunization to reach herd immunity in Jordan.

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“…While only Pfizer has been implemented for those aged 5–11 years, in Italy, the United States, Israel, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Poland, France, Spain and Denmark. [ 210 – 213 , 218 , 223 – 225 ]. Several studies have shown that vaccines were safe and effective in reducing virus transmission and protecting them against re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 [ 205 , 226 – 228 ].…”

Section: Sars-cov-2 Vaccines In Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

SARS-CoV-2 infection in pediatric population before and during the Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) variants era

Khemiri

Ayouni

Triki

et al. 2022

Virol J

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Background COVID-19, the coronavirus disease that emerged in December 2019, caused drastic damage worldwide. At the beginning of the pandemic, available data suggested that the infection occurs more frequently in adults than in infants. In this review, we aim to provide an overview of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children before and after B.1.617.2 Delta and B.1.1.529 Omicron variants emergence in terms of prevalence, transmission dynamics, clinical manifestations, complications and risk factors. Methods Our method is based on the literature search on PubMed, Science Direct and Google Scholar. From January 2020 to July 2022, a total of 229 references, relevant for the purpose of this review, were considered. Results The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in infants was underestimated. Up to the first half of May, most of the infected children presented asymptomatic or mild manifestations. The prevalence of COVID-19 varied from country to another: the highest was reported in the United States (22.5%). COVID-19 can progress and become more severe, especially with the presence of underlying health conditions. It can also progress into Kawasaki or Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS) manifestations, as a consequence of exacerbating immune response. With the emergence of the B.1.617.2 Delta and B.1.1.529 Omicron variants, it seems that these variants affect a large proportion of the younger population with the appearance of clinical manifestations similar to those presented by adults with important hospitalization rates. Conclusion The pediatric population constitutes a vulnerable group that requires particular attention, especially with the emergence of more virulent variants. The increase of symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and hospitalization rate among children highlights the need to extend vaccination to the pediatric population.

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Children’s rates of COVID-19 vaccination as reported by parents, vaccine hesitancy, and determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among children: a multi-country study from the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Cited by 46 publications

References 38 publications

Assessing Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Vaccinating Children (Five to 15 Years Old) Against COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates

Assessing Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Vaccinating Children (Five to 15 Years Old) Against COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates

COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Vulnerable Groups: Syrian Refugees in Jordan

SARS-CoV-2 infection in pediatric population before and during the Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) variants era

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