[Local Data] Hong Kong parents’ intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19
The Hong Kong government has officially stated that children as young as five years old would be able to get COVID-19 vaccines starting from January 2022. One of the most critical elements affecting how many children will be covered by the campaign is parents' intention to vaccinate their children. Recently, a large-scale local survey has revealed the intention of Hong Kong parents to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, as well as the correlations.
Sample size
- 11,141 parents (86% mothers) of 14,468 children aged 5 – 12 (49.5% girls)
Results
- Hong Kong parents reported low levels of intention to vaccinate their children (Mean = 1.55/5.00, SD = 1.11/5.00, on a five-point Likert scale from ‘1’ = strongly disagree to ‘5’ = strongly agree)
- At the within-family level, parents had stronger intention to vaccinate a certain child if the child was older
- At the between-family level, parents had stronger intention to vaccinate their children if,
- Parents had been vaccinated at least one dose themselves
- Parents were more likely to believe that their children were susceptible to COVID-19
- Parents were more likely to believe that children getting vaccinated would be beneficial
- Parents were more likely to believe that there would be less concerns about the side effects
- Parents showed more positive views regarding vaccinating their children
- Stronger subjective norms were perceived by parents
Link to the full article:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8934736/pdf/main.pdf
Reference:
Li JB et al. Why do Hong Kong parents have low intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19? Testing health belief model and theory of planned behavior in a large-scale survey. Vaccine. 2022;40(19):2772-2780.
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