P3B307: Assessing Factors That Impact Parental Willingness to Vaccinate Their Children Against covid-19 in a Primarily Immigrant Patient Population in Elmhurst, Queens

Background: Parental concerns surrounding COVID-19 vaccination of their children often include fear of side effects and perceived lack of information. Specifically, immigrant parents may face additional barriers in this decision, such as language barriers or low health literacy. As COVID-19 has disproportionately affected vulnerable populations, this study focused on a largely immigrant cohort in Elmhurst, Queens to gauge factors that influence parents’ decisions to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, specifically maternal COVID-19 illness history, a variable that has been scarcely studied.

The primary goal of this study is to assess the relationship between history of maternal COVID-19 illness, defined as having tested positive for COVID-19 at least once, and the willingness of a mother to vaccinate their child for COVID-19. Our hypothesis is that mothers who had tested positive for COVID-19 may be more likely to be comfortable vaccinating their child due to existing research that shows that past familial experience with COVID-19 may be a factor in vaccine decisions.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with women who had a pregnancy encounter at Elmhurst Hospital between March 1, 2020 and September 1, 2021 and whose children were between 6 months and 2 years at the time of survey completion. The survey contained questions about demographics, COVID-19 vaccination/illness history, and child development.

Results: In preliminary analysis with data from 24 mothers, all of the survey respondents self-reported their race as Non-white, with 79.2% of respondents identifying as Hispanic. 66.7% reported not being born in the U.S. 70.9% of respondents’ highest level of schooling was a high school diploma or less. 50% of the respondents had tested positive for COVID-19 at some point. The rate of willingness to vaccinate their children was 59.1% overall, 80% within those with a COVID-19 history, and 42% within those who had no experience with COVID-19. There was no significant association found between maternal COVID-19 illness status and mothers’ willingness to vaccinate their children (Fisher’s exact = 0.099).

Conclusion: While the results of this study show no significant association between maternal COVID-19 illness and willingness to vaccinate their children, the high percentage difference in vaccination willingness between the groups merits further study in a larger sample. Future plans for this ongoing study include increasing sample size and examining the relationship between maternal COVID-19 illness, willingness to vaccinate, and child development scores collected in the original survey.