COVID-19 VACCINATION FOR CHILDREN: DISCREPANCY IN KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN PARENTS IN SELANGOR

Recent studies have reported findings on Malaysian public knowledge on COVID-19 infection and vaccination. However, there is still lack of report that explore this issue among the urban and rural parents in Malaysia. This study aims to compare the knowledge and attitudes on COVID-19 vaccination for children between parents living in the urban and rural areas of Selangor. Self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among parents living in urban and rural regions of Selangor. The three-part questionnaire assessed the demographic characteristics, knowledge, positive attitude, and negative attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination for children. Out of 302 respondents, there were 152 (50.3%) rural parents and 150 (49.7%) urban parents. The level of knowledge and positive attitude of urban parents were found to be significantly higher than the rural parents towards COVID-19 vaccination for children. Also, Spearman correlation indicated a moderate positive association between knowledge and positive attitude while there is a weak negative association between knowledge and negative attitude of the parents towards COVID-19 vaccination for children. This study highlighted the knowledge and attitude gaps between rural and urban parents towards COVID-19 immunization for children. Collaborative efforts from the government and private sectors are essential to promote effective health messaging and increase vaccine coverage in achieving herd immunity against COVID-19.