Confidence toward vaccination as reported by parents of children admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A cross sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundParents decisions toward vaccination are significant for expanding the vaccination rate and parent compliance toward vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy is an issue of worldwide concern in both developed and developing nations. We aimed to assess the magnitude of parent's hesitancy toward vaccines and to determine the reasons of parents of partially vaccinated and unvaccinated children in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia. MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered standardized questionnaire, derived from the World Health Organization's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts, for parents of children <14 years of age admitted to the Children Specialized Hospital, a tertiary governmental care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between January and March 2019. ResultsA total of 384 parents completed the survey. Majority of the parents expressed positive confidence about vaccines. Most of the parents know that childhood vaccines are important for their child's health (78.40%) and can protect children from serious diseases. Fifty-seven (14.8%) participants were hesitant to vaccinate their children. The majority of parents fully vaccinated their children (74.7%), followed by partially vaccinated (23.7%), and unvaccinated (1.6%). Common reason for parents to partially vaccinated/unvaccinated their children were due to the child's medical illnesses (78.4%). Physicians were the main source of vaccination information among parents (68.80%). ConclusionConfidence toward vaccinations is good among parents in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, minority of the parents showed hesitancy. The way wherein vaccination information is shared to parents can be especially significant thus, we recommend to increase public awareness about vaccination in our community.