Correlation between parents’ social media use, educational level, COVID-19 vaccination status and vaccine hesitancy for their children in Singapore

ABSTRACT

AimsAfter the approval of the paediatric COVID-19 vaccines, the uptake was slower compared to the teenagers and adults in Singapore. Studies have shown that parents with higher social media usage are more hesitant to vaccinate their children. Our research aims to determine (1) correlation between profile of parents in Singapore and source of information versus vaccine hesitancy, (2) their opinions towards paediatric COVID-19 vaccines.MethodsA prospective, anonymous, and voluntary electronic survey was performed in Singapore from 14/Nov/2021 for 12 weeks. Demographic data was obtained. Time spent on social media (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Weibo, Instagram) and total device usage per week were divided into high and low usage high usage being more than 12 hours/week of social media and/or 6 hours/day of device use. Vaccine hesitancy was a self-assessed variable by the participants. Results were analysed using Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests with SPSS. Statistical significance was defined to be 2-sided p <.05.ResultsWe surveyed 628 parents (mean (SD) of 39.1(6.7) years old), with 69.1% being mothers, with a median of 2 children each. 90.1% had at least pre-university education. Majority (99.2%) had received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 61.4% had at least 1 child eligible for paediatric COVID-19 vaccine and 27.6% had at least 1 teenager. Respondents spent a mode of 1 to 12 hours per week on social media and 1 to 6 hours per day on digital devices. 85.8% and 61.0% believed that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were most effective, and safest against COVID-19, respectively. The most read source for health information was from print material such as health pamphlets (50.8%) rather than social media (35.7%).Contrary to other studies, parents with high usage of digital devices were more willing to give mRNA vaccines to their teenagers (84.0% vs 16.0%, p<.001). COVID-19 unvaccinated parents were also more childhood vaccine hesitant. (100% vs 18.3%, p< .001). Comparing to lower educated parents, parents with at least pre-university education were less vaccine hesitant (30.5% vs 56.5%, p<.001). They were more likely to receive COVID-19- related information via other print material (91.2% vs 8.8%, p=.010). Among parents with at least pre-university education, 53.0% obtained most of their COVID-19 related information from print material compared to social media (35.1%). Parents who personally knew someone with a bad reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine correlates to hesitancy towards childhood vaccines (18.9% vs 14.2%, p<.001).ConclusionVaccine hesitancy is correlated with low device and social media usage, parents’ unvaccinated status, low education status. Despite high usage of social media and digital devices, parents with a higher level of education were more likely to obtain information regarding COVID-19 vaccines from print material rather than social media. Health education regarding vaccine safety through print media may encourage more parents to vaccinate their children and may help to reassure them that benefits overweigh the risks to increase uptake.