Stop COVID-19 in Kids Project – Building trust and empowering families’ decision making around vaccination

Funders

Public Health Agency of Canada via the Immunization Partnership Fund and National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Study rational

Although vaccination of children aged 5–11 years against COVID-19 has been recommended in Canada since November 2021, nearly half of Ontarian children this age remain unvaccinated. In July 2022, Health Canada also approved SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for children 6 months to 5 years of age. However, the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in this age group has been very low in all provinces. We have two main goals for this project: 1) to collect data about COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, hesitancy, and other caregiver opinions about vaccination in this age group, and 2) to use these data to develop resources that can be used to support decision making around vaccination. This multi-component project thus aimed to:

1. Explore perceived barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 immunization in children and parents, possible reasons for vaccine hesitancy and educational preferences on COVID-19 vaccines through:

  • Systematic reviews:

    • We are conducting three systematic reviews. The first review pertains to parental attitudes, acceptance, and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines. The second review is narrative and pertains to COVID-19 vaccines safety and Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) in children age 18 and under. The third review is systematically gathering available educational online resources for parents on COVID-19 vaccines to evaluate the reliability, understandability, and content of available online resources and provide important insights on how these tools may be improved to increase vaccine confidence

  • Surveys of caregivers of children age 5–11:

    • We have conducted a multi-language self-administered survey through more than 600 schools (TDSB/TCDSB/French, and private) affiliated with the SickKids COVID-19 testing program and two community health centres (Black Creek and TAIBU) within the Toronto Area.

  • Surveys of caregivers of children age under 5:

    • We have conducted a multi-language self-administered survey through more than 600 schools (TDSB/TCDSB/French, and private) affiliated with the SickKids COVID-19 testing program and two community health centres (Black Creek and TAIBU) within the Toronto Area.

  • Focus group discussions:

    • Focus group discussions were held with parents recruited through the survey study to gain a more in-depth understanding of caregivers’ opinions and beliefs about COVID-19 vaccination in children.

2. Support public health units and health care workers in the vaccine rollout for children through education programs and outreach initiatives to support family and caregiver decision-making around COVID-19.

3. Increase vaccine awareness, confidence and uptake in children and their families using an evidence-based program.

4. Evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of an educational program in school settings on COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

5. Develop knowledge translation tools.

In addition to our scientific presentations and publications, we have used the information gathered in our surveys, systematic reviews, and focus groups to develop additional knowledge translation tools to communicate information about COVID-19 vaccination in the 5 to 11 year old age group to community members. These include:

Educational slide sets:

Infographics: