Journal Article

Attitudes of parents towards influenza vaccine in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A multilevel analysis

Taha, Sarah Hamed N., Ghazy, Ramy Mohamed, Ibrahim, Sarah Assem, Abdel-Rahman, Suzan, Fadl, Noha, Elshabrawy, Abdelhamid, Elkhadry, Sally Waheed, Hassaan, Mahmoud A.

2023

Overview

Seasonal influenza vaccines (SIVs) can protect against influenza and substantially reduce the risk of influenza-related hospitalizations and fatalities in children. This study aimed to assess parental attitudes towards SIVs in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR). Through an anonymous online survey conducted in 19 countries in the EMR, parents or caregivers over 18 years who had at least one child above 6 months filled out the Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines questionnaire. As data had two levels; country and individual factors, we utilized multilevel binary logistic regression models. In total, 6992 respondents filled out the questionnaire. Of them, 47.4 % were residents of middle-income countries, 72.4 % of the mothers were between 26 and 45 years old, 56.5 % had at least a university degree, and approximately 51.6 % were unemployed. Nearly 50.8 % of the respondents were hesitant to vaccinate their children against seasonal influenza. Parental attitudes towards seasonal influenza vaccination differed significantly between countries, p < 0.001. The main predictors of parental seasonal influenza vaccine hesitancy (VH) were parents vaccination (odds ratio (OR) = 0.42, 95 % CI = 0.32–0.55, p < 0.001)), the mother's education if mother educated vs. who did not receive any education (OR ranged from 0.48 to 0.64, p < 0.05), living in low-income countries (OR = 0.52, 95 % CI = 0.35–0.77, p < 0.01), mountain residence (0.69, 95 % CI = 0.49–0.99, p < 0.05), health workers as a source of information (OR = 0.70, 95 % CI = 0.58–0.85, p < 0.001), children vaccination against COVID-19 (OR = 0.52, 95 % CI = 0.41–0.65, p < 0.001), not receiving routine vaccinations (OR = 1.93, 95 % CI = 1.09–3.44, p = 0.025), and if parents respondents could not remember whether their child had suffered from seasonal influenza in the previous year (OR = 1.57, 95 % CI = 1.33–1.84, p < 0.001). A high seasonal influenza VH rate was found in the EMR. Health authorities should implement different interventions targeting the identified modifiable risk factor to increase vaccine uptake among children, especially those at risk of complication from seasonal influenza infection.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: academic degrees / Adult / Allergy and Immunology / Attitudes / Birth order / caregivers / Child / childhood / Children / Children & youth / Confidentiality / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / COVID-19 infection / COVID-19 vaccines / Data collection / Dependent variables / Disease transmission / Education / EMR / Families & family life / Female / Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / Humans / Immunization / Income / Infections / Influenza / influenza vaccination / Influenza Vaccines / Influenza, Human - prevention & control / Information sources / Likert scale / Low income areas / Medical personnel / Mediterranean region / Middle Aged / Multilevel Analysis / odds ratio / PACV / Parent attitudes / Parental vaccine hesitancy / Parents / Parents - education / Participation / Pilot projects / Privacy / Public health / Questionnaires / Regression analysis / Regression models / Response rates / Risk factors / risk reduction / Sample size / Seasonal influenza vaccine / Social networks / Sociodemographics / surveys / Vaccination / Vaccine hesitancy / Vaccines