Why Do Hong Kong Parents Have Low Intention to Vaccinate Their Children against COVID-19? Testing Health Belief Model and Theory of Planned Behavior in a Large-Scale Survey

COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized for use in children in some societies. Parents’ intention to vaccinate their children is context-specific. Drawing upon health belief model (HBM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study contributed to a timely topic by examining the extent to which parents intended to vaccinate their children and its associated factors in Hong Kong, where the government announced children as young as five could take COVID-19 vaccines starting from 21 January 2022. A large-scale, online survey was conducted among 11,141 Hong Kong parents (86% mothers) of children aged 5-12 (N=14,468, 49.5% girls). They reported on measures that assessed HBM constructs (i.e., perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action), TPB constructs (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control), and their intention to vaccinate each of their children. Results of descriptive statistics showed that Hong Kong parents’ intention to vaccinate their children was very low (1.55 out of 5.00). Multilevel regression showed that after controlling for parents’ and children’s demographic variables (e.g., sex and age), parents’ intention to vaccinate their children was higher if parents had higher levels of perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, positive attitudes, and subjective norms and if they had lower levels of perceived barriers. Positive attitudes were the strongest correlate of parents’ intention. These findings have important implications for public health by informing which factors authorities should address in order to boost Hong Kong parents’ intention to vaccinate their children.

Time Course of Psychological Impact for Male: Discovered in COVID-19 Cases (preprint)

The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is leading to widespread emotional distress such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Our objective was to investigate the gender differences in PTSD symptoms (PTSS) among COVID-19 symptomatic patients over time caused by delayed medical visit. We investigated 258 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from two designated hospitals in Wuhan from 26 February to 16 March. PTSS was measured by PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Demographics and time interval from symptom onset to the first medical visit were also collected. The results show that 48 of 258 participants (18.6 %) met the criteria of PTSD symptoms. Males had significantly higher PCL-5 scores when time interval was 7 days or more compared with less than 7 days (22.18 vs. 15.11, t=-2.280, P<0.05), whereas no such significant time effect was found in females, regardless of the severity of the disease. The present study emphasizes the significant effect of time course on PTSS only in male. It is suggested that policy makers and health services should pay more attention to PTSD in male, and call on male to seek medical treatment as soon as developing symptoms of coronavirus disease if local medical conditions permitted.

Triaging patients in the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (preprint)

In the end of 2019, the epidemic of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) occurred in Wuhan and spread rapidly. Changsha, a city located south to the epicenter, was soon impacted. To control the transmission of the coronavirus and avoid nosocomial infection, triage procedures based on epidemiology were implemented in a local hospital of the city. This retrospective study analyzed the data collected during the triage period and found that COVID-19 patients were enriched seven folds into the Section A designated for rapid detection and quarantine. On the other side, roughly triple amounts of visits were received at the Section B for patients without obvious epidemiological history. Eight COVID-19 cases were spotted out of 247 suspected patients. More than 50% of the suspected patients were submitted to multiple rounds of nucleic acid analysis for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Of the 239 patients who were diagnosed as negative of the virus infection,188 were successfully revisited and none was reported as a COVID-19 case. Of the eight COVID-19 patients, three were confirmed only after multiple rounds of nucleic acid analysis. Besides comorbidities, delayed sharing of epidemiological history added another layer of complexity to the diagnosis in practice. While SARS-CoV-2 epidemic is being alerted in many countries, our report will be helpful to other colleagues in rapid identification of COVID-19 cases and controlling the transmission of the disease.