COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Caregivers of Developmentally Disabled Kids

InfoEpi Lab

Summary

The study aimed to understand the reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among caregivers of developmentally disabled youth. Using a forced-choice survey format, caregivers were asked to select between two reasons for vaccine hesitancy. The study was conducted with 87 caregivers, all of whom identified as white and were from the Mountain West region of the United States.

Key Findings

48% of the children of participating caregivers had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose but not the full series plus booster shot.
78% of caregivers had received the initial two-dose series of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The most commonly endorsed reasons for vaccine hesitancy were concerns about the novelty of the COVID-19 vaccine (50.8%) and concerns about vaccine side effects (50.3%).
Other reasons included mistrust in the health care system, mistrust in the government, and concerns about the vaccine’s testing on people with disabilities.
Over half (53.7%) of the respondents indicated that neither of the provided reasons affected their decision to vaccinate their child.

Implications:

Medical professionals may need to adjust their strategies when discussing vaccines with individuals who have higher levels of hesitancy.
Given the influence of media on vaccine hesitancy, primary care physicians should caution families about misinformation on social media and ensure that evidence-based information is disseminated.
Future research should explore other potential reasons for vaccine hesitancy among caregivers of developmentally disabled youth and find ways to reach this demographic.

Source

Romani PW, Hammad I, Luehring MC. COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Caregivers of Developmentally Disabled Youth. Clinical Pediatrics. 2023;0(0). doi:10.1177/00099228231201717

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@article{infoepi_lab2023,
  author = {InfoEpi Lab},
  publisher = {Information Epidemiology Lab},
  title = {COVID-19 {Vaccine} {Hesitancy} {Among} {Caregivers} of
    {Developmentally} {Disabled} {Kids}},
  journal = {InfoEpi Lab},
  date = {2023-09-14},
  url = {https://infoepi.org/posts/2023/09/16-disinformation-disabiltiy-caregivers.html},
  langid = {en}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

InfoEpi Lab. 2023. “COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Caregivers of Developmentally Disabled Kids.” InfoEpi Lab, September. https://infoepi.org/posts/2023/09/16-disinformation-disabiltiy-caregivers.html.