Peer-reviewed article
Factors influencing Thai parents' COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for their children: Vaccine attitudes, beliefs, and children's past influenza vaccination.
Maneesriwongul W, Deesamer S, Butsing N ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined what influences Thai parents' willingness to vaccinate their children against COVID-19. Among 973 Thai parents with children aged 6 months to under 10 years, 98.6% had received COVID-19 vaccination themselves, but only 51.3% would accept the vaccine for their children. Key factors affecting parents' acceptance included trust in health professionals, beliefs about vaccine safety, and their own opinions about whether children should be vaccinated. The study found that providing clear information from health professionals about vaccine safety and efficacy is important for increasing childhood COVID-19 vaccination rates.
Key points
- Only 51.3% of Thai parents would accept COVID-19 vaccine for their children, despite 98.6% having been vaccinated themselves
- Trust in health professionals was significantly associated with parents' vaccine acceptance for children
- Parents' beliefs in COVID-19 vaccine safety and opinions that children should be vaccinated were key factors influencing acceptance
- Negative attitudes about vaccination were associated with lower acceptance rates
- Children's past influenza vaccination was not a significant predictor in the final multivariate model
Limitations
This was a cross-sectional study using online data collection, which cannot establish causation and may not represent all Thai parents, particularly those without internet access or those from rural areas. The study captures associations but cannot determine whether vaccine beliefs drive acceptance or acceptance drives beliefs.
Abstract
This study assessed parents' vaccine attitudes, beliefs, and children's past influenza vaccination and determined their influence on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for children under 10 years. An online cross-sectional study was conducted in Thailand. A sample of 973 Thai parents with children between 6 months and under 10 years was used for data analysis. Results showed that 98.6% of parents reported receiving COVID-19 vaccination, but only 51.3% would accept COVID-19 vaccine for their children. Regression analyses showed that parent's age, trust in health professionals, beliefs in COVID-19 vaccine safety, opinions that children should also be vaccinated, negative attitudes about vaccination, willingness to pay for the vaccines, and children's age were associated with parents' COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for their children. Although the children's past influenza vaccination showed a significant association with parents' COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for their children in univariate analysis, it was not retained in the multivariate multinomial logistic regression model. Parents should receive vital information from health professionals about the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccination to increase its acceptance for children. The results will benefit future planning for vaccination programs for children when both the COVID-19 vaccine and annual influenza vaccine are recommended as essential immunizations for children BACKGROUND: Parental acceptance plays an important role in childhood COVID-19 vaccination, but factors underlying vaccine acceptance in Thailand remain insufficiently understood. This study assessed parents' vaccine attitudes, beliefs, preference to choose, willingness to pay for COVID-19 vaccine, and children's past influenza vaccination and examined their influence on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for their children aged 6 months to <10 years. Methods An online cross-sectional study was conducted in Thailand. A sample of 973 Thai parents with children aged 6 months to <10 years was used for data analysis using multivariate multinomial logistic regression. Results Results showed that 98.6% of parents reported receiving COVID-19 vaccination, but only 51.3% would accept COVID-19 vaccine for their children. Univariate multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that parent's age, trust in health professionals, beliefs in COVID-19 vaccine safety, opinions that children should also be vaccinated, negative attitudes about vaccination, willingness to pay for the vaccines, and children's age were associated with parents' COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for their children. The final multivariate model included children's age, beliefs in vaccine safety, trust in health professionals, opinions that children should also be vaccinated, negative attitudes about vaccination, and willingness to pay for the vaccines. Although the children's past influenza vaccination showed a significant association with parents' COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for their children in univariate analysis, it was not retained in the multivariate multinomial logistic regression model. Conclusions Parents should receive vital information from health professionals about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccination to increase its acceptance for children. The results will benefit future planning for vaccination programs for children when both the COVID-19 vaccine and annual influenza vaccine are recommended as essential immunizations for children.