Pediatricians play a key role in addressing concerns about vaccine side effects and further boosting pediatric vaccination rates. This represents an opportunity for pediatricians to provide critical information to parents whose children are not vaccinated.
Survey shows power of the pediatrician role
The Boost Up project included a statewide survey of 1,342 parents of children ages 6 months to 17 years in Massachusetts, including oversamples of Black, Latino, and Asian parents. The survey was conducted March 11-26, 2023, via live telephone and online interviewing in English and Spanish and was funded by the State of Massachusetts via the Massachusetts Bureau of Infectious Diseases and Laboratory Sciences. Major design input was provided by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The survey shows the powerful role pediatricians can play in increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates for children:
Boosting vaccination rates. Vaccine rates are higher among parents who have received a recommendation and enough information from their pediatrician, and among parents who asked their pediatrician about the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Over three-quarters of parents who have been recommended the COVID-19 vaccine by their pediatrician have all of their children vaccinated when given enough information.
- Vaccination rates drop significantly when a pediatrician recommends but does not give enough information.
- However, recommendations from pediatricians are far from universal: While most parents say a pediatrician has recommended their children get vaccinated, Black and Latino men, Republicans, and younger parents are less likely to have gotten a recommendation.
- A majority of parents who have a regular pediatrician for their child have asked about the COVID-19 vaccine. And child vaccination rates are higher among parents who have asked their pediatrician about the vaccine.
Combating side-effect worries. Importantly, given that concern over side effects (short- and long-term) was the most frequently cited reason parents didn’t vaccinate their children against COVID, the survey showed that pediatricians spending the time to give enough information to parents can help ease concerns about side effects.
Increasing belief in vaccine effectiveness. Again demonstrating the power and importance of the pediatrician role—and that parents are listening—belief in the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine increases by 24 percentage points when recommended by a pediatrician when enough information was provided.
Encouraging parent/whole-family vaccination. Parents who are fully vaccinated themselves think the vaccine is safer for all age groups, so encouraging parent vaccination will help with pediatric vaccination rates as well.
