Publications

Background: Parents are more concerned about the available evidence of the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of the pediatricCOVID-19 vaccine.Aim: To assess the parents’ willingness to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 and associate it with health belief modelconstructs.Materials and Methods: A countrywide, online, self-administered, cross-sectional survey was conducted from December 15,2021 to March 8, 2022. The HBM approach was used as a theoretical context to assess the predictors of parents’ willingness tovaccinate their children against COVID-19.Results: The majority (1,563; 95.4%) of parents are intended to immunize their children against COVID-19. Parent education, financialstatus, job, number of children, age-related vaccination status of the child, and household suffering from chronic disorders weresignificantly associated with a parent’s willingness to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for their children. The findings of HBM constructsindicated that perceived benefits (OR 14.222; 95% CI 7.192-28.124) of the COVID-19 vaccine in children, susceptibility (OR7.758; 95% CI 3.508-17.155) of children toward COVID-19, and severity (OR 3.820; 95% CI 2.092-6.977) of COVID-19 infection inchildren were significantly associated with parent acceptance to vaccinate their children. Parents’ higher perception of barriers (OR0.609; 95% CI 0.372-0.999) to vaccination reduces the intention to vaccinate children against COVID-19.Conclusion: The findings of our study reveal that the value of HBM constructs in the identification of predictors associated withthe parents’ willingness to encourage COVID-19 vaccine for their children. It is important to improve health and reduce thebarriers to COVID-19 vaccination among Indian parents having children less than 18 years.