Caregivers of Children Under 5: A Cross-Sectional Survey

We conducted this project to assess caregivers’ vaccine acceptance and uptake for children aged 5–11 years in Toronto. Our goal was to identify how to best target educational and public health interventions, identify parental concerns that need to be addressed to increase vaccine confidence, and ultimately develop and evaluate reliable sources of evidence on COVID-19 vaccines tailored to the needs of school-aged children and their families in a local context. In addition to asking questions about children aged 5–11 years, we also asked questions about vaccination in children under the age of 5.

We conducted a multi-language, self-administered, cross-sectional survey and sent it to caregivers from 660 schools and two community health centres in the Greater Toronto Area from April 5 to July 4, 2022. The survey was available in eight languages and collected information on socio-demographic characteristics, baseline acceptance of routine childhood immunizations and influenza vaccines, intent to vaccinate children in the family against COVID-19 and current vaccine status for parents/respondents who are age-eligible.

This survey of 253 caregivers of children under 5 years old found that while 94% of caregivers had received at least two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, only 59% had intentions to vaccinate their child. Vaccine acceptance differed among caregivers of different ethnic backgrounds, with the lowest acceptance reported in Black (25%) and Middle Eastern (37.5%) caregivers. Other factors, such as caregivers’ age, education level and vaccination status, were associated with differences in vaccine acceptance. Caregivers reported seeking information on COVID-19 vaccines primarily from public health resources, government organizations, social media and family doctors or paediatricians. The most common reason for vaccine hesitancy was concern about long-term side effects, such as cardiovascular, neurological or developmental side effects, and infertility, followed by children being too young to be vaccinated and wanting to wait until there is more experience with vaccinating children in this age group.

The results of this study have been presented at the European Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases in May 2023 in Portugal and published in Canada Communicable Diseases Report – SARS-CoV-2 vaccine acceptance among caregivers of children younger than five.