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. 2023 May 3:11:1127745.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1127745. eCollection 2023.

Vaccine hesitancy and the willingness to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine to children in a rural country on the United States-Mexico border

Raghu D Darisi  1 , Audrey J Buckland  2 , Mario Morales  3 , Maia Ingram  4 , Emily Harris  1 , Jeffrey R Holzberg  1
Affiliations

Vaccine hesitancy and the willingness to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine to children in a rural country on the United States-Mexico border

Raghu D Darisi et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: As of October 26, 2022, only 9% of children in the United States aged 6 months to 4 years have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine despite FDA approval since June 17, 2022. Rates are better yet still low for children aged 5 to 11 years as nearly 30% were fully vaccinated as of August 23, 2022. Vaccine hesitancy among adults is one of the major factors affecting low vaccine uptake rates in children against COVID-19, yet most studies examining vaccine hesitancy have targeted school-age and adolescent children.

Methods: With the aim of assessing the willingness to recommend the COVID-19 vaccination to children under 5 years compared to children 5 to 12 years of age, a county-wide survey was conducted between January 11 and March 7, 2022, among adults on the United States-Mexico border.

Results: Among the 765 responses, 72.5% were female and 42.3% were Latinx. The most significant factor associated with likelihood to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine to children less than 5 years and 5-12 years of age was adult vaccination status. Ordinal logistic regression also indicated that ethnicity, primary language, being a parent, previous COVID-19 infection, and concern about getting COVID-19 in the future were significantly associated with likelihood of COVID-19 vaccine recommendation to children < 5 years and 5-12 years old.

Discussion: This study found high consistency among respondents in their willingness to vaccinate children aged < 5 years compared with children aged 5-12 years. Our findings support public health strategies that target adult vaccinations as an avenue to improve childhood vaccinations for young children.

Keywords: COVID-19; United States-Mexico border; children; pediatrics; vaccine hesitancy; vaccine willingness.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors RD, EH, and JH were employed by Chiricahua Community Health Centers, Inc. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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