COVID-19 Vaccines for Children with Developmental Disabilities: Survey of New York State Parents' Willingness and Concerns

  1. Karen Bonuck
  2. Suzannah Iadarola
  3. Qi Gao
  4. Joanne F. Siegel

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Abstract

Objective:

While 1 in 6 US children have a developmental disability (DD), and such children are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, little is known about their vaccination status. We surveyed New York State parents of children with DDs to ascertain willingness and concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods:

An online survey was distributed to statewide DD networks from June to September 2021 (vaccines were authorized for adolescents in May 2021). We report associations between vaccine willingness and concerns and race/ethnicity, child age, in-person schooling, routine/flu vaccinations, and DD diagnoses. Willingness was categorized as “got/will get ASAP” (high), “wait and see/only if required,” or “definitely not.”

Results:

A total of 352 parents (49.1% White) responded. Willingness differed by age ( p < 0.001). High willingness was reported for 73.9%, 50.0%, and 36.0% of children aged 12 to 17, 6 to 11, and 0 to 5 years, respectively. Willingness differed by autism diagnosis ( p < 0.01) and routine and flu vaccination status ( p < 0.001). Predominant concerns included side effects (89%) and children with disabilities not being in trials (80%). Less common concerns were COVID not serious enough in children to warrant vaccine (23%) and misinformation (e.g., microchips, 5G, DNA changes) (24%). Concerns about vaccine safety differed by age ( p < 0.01) and were highest for older and then the youngest children. In age-stratified adjusted models, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was negatively associated with high willingness for age 5 or younger (OR = 0.02, 95% confidence interval, <0.001–0.622).

Conclusion:

Parents of children with DD in New York seemed highly willing for them to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Although few factors predicted willingness to vaccinate, addressing safety and developmental concerns regarding young children is warranted. Given their increased vulnerability, improved COVID-19 surveillance for children with DD is warranted.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.1097/dbp.0000000000001113
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.12.23.21267953: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: This project received a determination of “Non-Research” from both the Institutional Review of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and from the Research Subjects Review Board at the University of Rochester. Survey Distribution: The survey was built into Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap), a user-friendly, HIPAA compliant data capture system.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All analyses were performed by using SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc.
    SAS Institute
    suggested: (Statistical Analysis System, RRID:SCR_008567)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    A main limitation is the convenience sample, which may bias towards families connected to the DD networks from which we recruited. Relatedly, most respondents were from New York State. Thus, findings may not be generalizable to the US given pre-pandemic demographic differences, and state-specific COVID-19 infection and morbidity rates, and guidelines. Notably, 49% of US parents in a prior survey intended to vaccinate their youngest child19 compared with 62% of New York City parents using the same survey.20 Finally, the sample may exclude parents who were unable to access and navigate a web-linked survey. Conclusion: Children with DDs are vulnerable to both the health risks posed by COVID-19, as well as the pandemic’s impact on developmental services, in-person schooling, and socialization opportunities. The relatively high willingness of parents of children with DDs to vaccinate their children is encouraging, though trust will need to be engendered among parents of young children of color to actualize these intentions. Additional monitoring data are needed to track COVID-19 disease, vaccine intentions and vaccination rates in children.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.12.23.21267953v1 on medRxiv