Parents’ Likelihood to Vaccinate Their Children and Themselves Against COVID-19

  1. Matthew M. Davis
  2. Joseph S. Zickafoose
  3. Alese E. Halvorson
  4. Stephen W. Patrick

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Abstract

Background

Vaccination against COVID-19 will likely involve children in order to mitigate transmission risks in community settings. Successful implementation of COVID-19 immunization in the United States may hinge on factors associated with parents’ likelihood of immunizing their children and themselves.

Methods

We fielded a national household survey in English and Spanish from June 5-10, 2020 (n=1,008). Parents were asked about their likelihood of immunizing their children and themselves against COVID-19. We fit separate regression models of parents’ likelihood to vaccinate themselves and their children against COVID-19, using bivariate and multivariable approaches in analyses weighted to be nationally representative.

Results

Overall, 63% of parents (95% CI: 59%, 66%) were likely to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, and 60% (57%, 64%) were likely to get a vaccine themselves. These responses were highly correlated (Pearson’s r=0.89). Parent age, sex, marital status, education level, and income were all associated with parents’ likelihood to vaccinate their children and themselves in bivariate analyses; race/ethnicity was significantly associated with parents’ likelihood to vaccinate their children. In multivariable analyses, younger parents were significantly less likely than older parents to vaccinate their children and themselves against COVID-19, as were parents with high school or less education compared with parents with bachelor’s degrees and non-Hispanic White parents compared with Hispanic parents (all p<.05).

Conclusion

In this national survey, only approximately 60% of U.S. parents stated that they are likely to vaccinate their children or themselves against COVID-19. Addressing parents’ hesitancy to vaccinate themselves and their children against COVID-19 will be instrumental to achieving herd immunity in the US.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.10.20228759: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: This study was considered exempt from human subjects review by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Institutional Review Board.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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.

    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.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.10.20228759v1 on medRxiv