ABSTRACT
Objective: Aim of study's determine frequency of hesitations of parents to COVID-19 vaccinate their children and parents the behaviors of take COVID-19 public health measures(PHM) for their children who applied to a university hospital in Turkey. Methods: This descriptive study is study of parental COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and PHM in parents with children aged 5-12 years admitted to university hospital in Turkey, January-February 2022. Participants' sociodemographic, COVID-19 infection and vaccinations characteristics, status of parents taking PHM, COVID-19 Fear Scale are independent variables. Student's t test, ANOVA, chi-square test in univariate analyses, logistic-linear regression models in multivariate analyzes are used. Type-1 error value is 0.05. Analyzes are made using SPSS23.0. Results: Parents' mean age's 37.1+or-6.4, 68.7% of them female. Children's mean age's 8.5+or-2.3, 53.8% of them male. 17.9% of parents consider their knowledge of protection from COVID-19 and vaccines minimally sufficient/insufficient, 28.7% of them have negative attitude towards PHM for their children. 48.8% of parents have hesitations their children vaccination. As multiple analysis's result;fathers who've never been vaccinated, increase risk of hesitations 6.21 times (OR: 6.21;95%CI=2.16-17.82);parent's negative attitude towards PHM increases risk of hesitations 2.69 times (OR: 2.69;95%CI=1.35-5.35);each unit increase in mother's PHM behavior score affects hesitations 0.89 times (OR: 0.89;95%CI=0.84-0.95). While it's found that father's PHM behavior score had the most effect on parent's PHM behavior score, COVID-19 Fear Scale score had the least effect. Conclusion: Nearly one every two parents have COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy for their children. Fathers are main actors for taking PHM for COVID-19, so fathers as well as mothers should be considered target persons for children COVID-19 vaccine.