Attitude of Parents of Children with Cerebral Palsy Towards COVID-19 Vaccination

Ramy Mohamed Ghazy, Malik Sallam, Noha Fadl (), Etwal Bouraad, Naglaa Youssef and Omnya Samy A. Ghoneim
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Ramy Mohamed Ghazy: Tropical Health Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
Malik Sallam: Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Noha Fadl: Family Health Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
Etwal Bouraad: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, American University of Beirut, Beirut 961, Lebanon
Naglaa Youssef: Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, College of Nursing, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia
Omnya Samy A. Ghoneim: Department of Physical Therapy for Pediatrics and Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Badr University in Cairo, Cairo 11829, Egypt

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) are at a greater risk of respiratory complications from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Therefore, this study aimed to assess COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy (VH) among parents of CP children in Egypt, using the Arabic version of the Parental Attitude about Childhood Vaccination (PACV) questionnaire. This cross-sectional survey study was conducted at the outpatient clinics of two hospitals in Cairo, Egypt. Parents of children with CP were recruited using a simple random sampling technique. A total of 321 parents were enrolled; more than half of them were mothers of the children (61.37%); and the majority were Egyptians (87.23%) and living in urban areas (84.42%). Nearly 70% of the parents were hesitant to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to their children. A multiple linear regression model revealed that the PACV mean scores were lower among the following categories: (1) parents who could pay back loans, compared to those who could not pay back loans and who reported insufficient income (β = −2.39, p = 0.030); (2) non-Egyptian parents (β = −1.54, p = 0.002); (3) those who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 themselves or had the intention to receive the complete COVID-19 vaccination (β = −6.28, p < 0.001); (4) those who had the intention to give the COVID-19 vaccination to their children (β = −3.04, p < 0.001); and (5) parents whose children received routine vaccines (β = −2.86, p < 0.045). After adjusting for other covariates, the parental COVID-19 vaccine status (β = −6.28, p < 0.001) and parents who experienced a COVID-19-related death in the family (β = −1.75, p < 0.001) showed significantly lower mean PACV scores. However, higher mean PACV scores were reported among parents who had a COVID-19 infection (β = 2.77, p < 0.001) or who were not sure (β = 2.94, p < 0.001). Our findings suggest the need to increase COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among parents of vulnerable children to reduce the negative consequences of COVID-19.

Keywords: cerebral palsy; COVID-19 vaccine; vaccine hesitancy; children; parental attitude; Egypt; SARS-CoV-2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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