Parent’s Willingness, Trust, Cues Health Literacies and Socioeconomic Factors to Vaccinate Their Children Aged 5 to 11 Years Old with the COVID-19 Vaccine in Selangor

A novel human coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) which caused the COVID-19 was first identified in December 2019, in Wuhan, China. Within months, the virus infection was declared as a pandemic on March 11th, 2020, by the World Health Organisation [1]. The initial Malaysian National COVID-19 Immunisation Program (NIP) was scheduled into few phases to administer vaccine to adults and adolescence aged from 12 to 17. In view of the fourth COVID-19 wave, NIP was also introduced to children aged 5 to 11 on 3rd February 2022. However, on 9th March of the same year, the health minister claimed that only 30% of children aged 5 to 11 years old have received at least of one dose of the vaccine [2]. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the willingness to immunise children against COVID-19 and identify the indicators of immunisation willingness among the parents.   A cross- sectional study via convenience sampling was conducted amongst the adult population residing in the Shah Alam, Selangor using sets of questionnaires adapted from previous validated sources [3]. Descriptive analysis was used to express the variables while the correlation between the variables were assessed using Spearman correlation analysis.   There was a total of 323 parents participated in this study where more than half of them were willing to vaccinate their children with the compulsory doses and booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The degree of willingness varies with 72 (22.3%) were somewhat likely, 64 (19.8%) were likely, and 96 (29.7%) were very likely to allow their children aged 5 to 11 years old to get COVID-19 vaccination (Table 1). Based on Spearman correlation analysis, the level of willingness to vaccinate the children among the respondents were significantly correlated with the health condition of the child, religious perspective, law and order compliance, financial incentive, insurance coverage and their level of trust in health information on COVID-19 (Table 2). A study conducted in China suggested that higher digital health literacy with the use of data regarding the COVID-19 immunisation greatly associated with a higher acceptance for children immunisation [4]. Regarding this statement, health proficiency alongside education levels does play a significant part for parents to look for assistance from healthcare personnel’ with respect to their children's immunity status as well as the entitlement to obtain immunisation. On the other hand, cues such as law and religious beliefs appear to be associated with parents' acceptance rate to immunise their children [5]. Studies on trust in government for the most part discovered a significant positive affiliation between level of trust and vaccine acceptance [6]. Aside from financial remuneration, providing health insurance coverage also among the factor for vaccine acceptance as studies have showed that the vaccine hesitancy is closely related to the concern of vaccine safety, effectiveness, and its side effects [7].   The present study indicates majority of the parents in Selangor were willing to vaccinate their children aged 5 to 11 years old where this trend is associated with certain cues and the level of trust in health information on COVID-19. The findings from this study may contribute to promote the advancement of public resilient to the pandemic.