Abstract

In pediatric patients, parental beliefs and concerns also come to the fore in the administration of the vaccine. In this study, we aimed to compare the beliefs and concerns of mothers of asthmatic children with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. The study included 143 asthmatic children (7-18 years old) and their mothers who admitted to the pediatric immunology and allergy outpatient clinic between June and August 2021. Mothers' age, job, education level, COVID-19 vaccination status, and concerns for mothers and their children were collected as sources of information. Mothers were invited to fill out a questionnaire adapted from the ‘Beliefs about Medicines Prescribed to Your Child Questionnaire’ (BMQ). Among 143 mothers who participated in the study, 106 had been vaccinated and 37 had not. In our study, 49.1% of mothers who had received COVID-19 vaccination did not plan to have their children vaccinated, while 93.7% of mothers who had not received COVID-19 vaccination did not plan to have their children vaccinated. Vaccinated mothers had higher necessity scores, whereas non-vaccinated mothers had higher anxiety scores regarding the COVID-19 vaccination. Reasons for hesitancy were determined as being afraid of the side effects, waiting for a local vaccine to be developed, and concerns about infertility. When the COVID-19 information sources were evaluated, 61% were television, 28% were social media, and 5% were doctors. Parents' beliefs and concerns about necessity were associated with the vaccination rates of children. Although asthmatic children and their families are among the most at risk patient groups in terms of respiratory diseases, there was a distant stance against vaccination even among the parents of this clinical group. İt is thought that the media should be used more actively and health care professionals should be more effective as a sources of information regarding vaccination.

Key words: Asthma, COVID-19 vaccine, information sources, parents' beliefs