Health Care Personnel Attitudes Toward Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccines

A level of hesitancy existed among parents when United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved pediatric COVID-19 vaccines were introduced. We explored attitudes, beliefs, and willingness of health care personnel (HCP) as parents to vaccinate children less than 18 years of age.

We developed a cross-sectional survey for HCPs as parents, including clinical and nonclinical staff, researchers, and trainees at a single academic medical institution. We assessed role categories by vaccination status, willingness to vaccinate their children, and COVID-19 history. We analyzed data via cross tabulation and Pearson correlation to examine relationships across variables.

There were a total of 1,538 research respondents. Nurses had a higher COVID-19 history compared to other roles (29.2%, P<.001). Vaccinated nurses were more likely to vaccinate their children (64.6%, P<.001). There was a significant negative correlation between self-identification as a nurse and willingness to vaccinate themselves (r=-.157, P<.001) or any child (r=-.150, P<.001), and a significant positive correlation among nurses having any COVID-19 history (r=.118, P<.001). Having a positive COVID-19 history was negatively correlated with personal vaccine status (r=-.217, P<.001) and intent to vaccinate any child (r=-.252, P<.001). While 77.8% (n=123) of all nurses with children were vaccinated willingly, 65.8% (n=104) had at least one child vaccinated; 81.3% of willingly vaccinated nurses (n=100) vaccinated at least one child, vs 11.4% (n=4) of nurses who mandated or were unvaccinated themselves.

Nurses were more hesitant to vaccinate themselves than other roles, had higher rates of COVID-19 history, and were more hesitant to vaccinate their children if they were unvaccinated.