Background: Vaccines are the most effective and risk-free health intervention available. Vaccination-related hesitancy is increasing in all countries, despite its global success. The current study aimed to assess the perception of the Qassim married population towards childhood vaccines and determine the factors affecting their decision regarding routine vaccination.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out using an online questionnaire (the SAGE group’s vaccine hesitancy scale). The questionnaire was distributed using Twitter and WhatsApp. To study the association between categorical variables, chi-sqaure test was used. Unpaired t-test was employed to compare the average and overall score for the Vaccine Attitude Scale between groups.
Results: The questionnaires were completed by 416 respondents. Regarding vaccine hesitancy, 16.6% of the included parents were hesitant to get a vaccination for their children, and 7.93% refused vaccination with an 18.5% overall hesitancy/refusal. Responses showed an overall positive attitude towards childhood vaccinations. It was discovered that vaccine hesitancy and children’s vaccination status were significantly related, with 10% of the hesitant parents reporting that their children were never vaccinated compared to 0.86% of non-hesitant parents (p < 0.001). The overall attitude score was significantly higher in non-hesitant than hesitant respondents (42.2 ± 4.74 vs. 30.5 ± 7.28, p < 0.001). The most common reasons for vaccine hesitancy/ refusal were safety concerns (61%), lack of need (42.9%), and negative media information (41.6%). Vaccine hesitancy/refusal was less prevalent in males (36.6%) than females (63.4%), with a significantly higher overall score in males than females (41 ± 5.89 vs. 38.9 ± 8.05, p = 0.005).
Conclusion: Findings from the current study showed moderate hesitancy and low refusal towards routine childhood vaccination in the married population in the Al-Qassim region and suggested a sound attitude towards routine vaccination. Awareness campaigns should be directed towards raising the knowledge regarding the importance of vaccination from an individual and community perspective to reduce hesitancy or refusal of vaccination.
Key words: Routine childhood vaccination, Saudi Arabia, vaccine hesitancy, immunization, attitude.
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