Parents' willingness to have their children vaccinated against COVID-19 in Geneva, Switzerland: a population-based cross-sectional study

Hélène Baysson, Nick Pullen, Carlos de Mestral, María-Eugenia Zaballa, Arnaud G. L'Huillier, Elsa Lorthe, Idris Guessous, Silvia Stringhini, for the Specchio-COVID19 study group.
Parental willingness to have children vaccinated against COVID-19 in Geneva, Switzerland: a cross-sectional population-based study.. Swiss Medical Weekly. 2023;153:40049. doi: 10.57187/smw.2023.40049

Abstract

Objective: We sought to examine factors associated with parents' willingness to have their children vaccinated against COVID-19.

Methods: We interviewed members of the Specchio-Covid19 digital longitudinal cohort, comprising participants in the seroprevalence surveys conducted in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2020 to 2022. In February 2022, an online questionnaire collected information on acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in general, parents' willingness to have their children aged ≥ 5 years vaccinated and the reasons given. We used multivariate logistic regression to assess demographic, socioeconomic and health-related factors associated with vaccination and parents' intention to vaccinate their children.

Results: We included 1,383 participants (56.8% women; 69.3% aged 35-49 years). Parents' willingness to have their children vaccinated increased markedly with the child's age: 84.0%, 60.9% and 21.2%, respectively, for parents of adolescents aged 16 to 17, 12 to 15 and 5 to 12. For all age groups of children, unvaccinated parents more frequently indicated that they had no intention of having their children vaccinated than vaccinated parents. Refusal to vaccinate their children was associated with secondary education (odds ratio (OR) =1.73; confidence interval _IC95%=1.18-2.47) compared with tertiary education and with medium (1.75; 1.18-2.60) and low (1.96; 1.20-3.22) household income compared with high income. Refusal to vaccinate their children was also associated with having only children aged 12 to 15 (3.08; 1.61 to 5.91), aged 5 to 11 (19.77; 10.27 to 38.05) or in several age groups (6.05; 3.22 to 11.37), compared with having only children aged 16 to 17.

Conclusion: Willingness to have children vaccinated against Covid-19 was high among parents of adolescents aged 16 to 17, but decreased significantly with the age of the child. Parents who were unvaccinated, socio-economically disadvantaged and those with younger children were less likely to be willing to have their children vaccinated. These results are important for vaccination programmes and the development of communication strategies to reach groups reluctant to vaccinate, both in the context of COVID-19 and for the prevention of other diseases and future pandemics.

Link to the article in English