ABSTRACT
Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARSCoV- 2) is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first reported from the Wuhan city of China in December 2019, affected all the world in a few months and became a global health emergency of primary international concern and was announced a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. Although the disease is showing a milder course in children, vaccination of this age group may be important due to increased number of the multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) and vaccines role in prevention of the spread of infection in children who have had asymptomatic disease. As vaccine refusal and hesitancy are increasing around the world, a new problem has emerged for children with pediatric rheumatic diseases who are already prone to infection. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the parental acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination for children with chronic rheumatic diseases when the vaccine is approved in childhood and to evaluate the background characteristics of willingness to get COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: The study included an analysis of a cross-sectional online questionnaire to the parents of the patients diagnosed with a chronic rheumatic disease at the Pediatric Rheumatology Outpatient Clinic of Istanbul Faculty of Medicine. A message containing a link to the actual questionnaire was sent to their phones simultaneously which covers their view for the SARS CoV-2 infection, sociodemographic data, thoughts about the vaccine, their child's behavior during the pandemic related to the disease, and completed by selfresponse method. Clinical information was accessed from the medical records of the patients. Results: The prevalence of parents' acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination for their children was 39.5% (30/76). The proportion of parents who were hesitant about the vaccination of their children was 47.4%. Whereas, the rates of acceptance of the vaccine by mothers and fathers themselves were 48.7% and 52.6%, respectively. Factors for vaccine referral were side effects (47.4%), limited information about the vaccine (45.2%) and possible ineteraction of the vaccines with the medications of the patients (40.2%). Parents were able to give multiple answers to this question. There was no significant relationship between the parents' educational status and their acceptance of the vaccine (respectively p=0.09, p=0.10) Conclusion: Children can serve as a reservoir that will undermine efforts to end the pandemic. While the vaccines have yet no approval for children <18 years, vaccinating children against the COVID-19 virus will contribute to the pandemic control, and the recovery of the global economy. The preliminary results of this survey targeting parents may be guide for physicians while promoting vaccination in the near future.