COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health care worker-parents (HCWP) in Puducherry, India and its implications on their children: A cross sectional descriptive study

Background: Vaccine hesitancy affects immunization programs worldwide and can impact vaccine cover-age and fight against Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) too.Objectives: Primary objectives: To find out the magnitude of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the Health Care Worker Parents (HCWPs), the reasons for vaccine hesitancy, and their perceptions regarding COVID-19 vaccination of their children. Secondary objective: To analyze the clinic-socio-demographic correlates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among HCWPs.Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study. Health care workers who are parents were invited to participate in the study. Details about COVID vaccination status, COVID-19 illness of HCWPS and fam-ily members and its outcomes , reasons for not getting vaccinated, willingness to vaccinate their children, reasons for not willing to vaccinate their children, their responses to vaccine hesitancy survey (VHS) questionnaire and Modified Oxford COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy scale (MOVHS) were collected and ana-lyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: A total of 269 HCWPs participated in the study. Of the HCWPs, 97% had completed their COVID-19 vaccination schedule. Majority stated that they would vaccinate their children when it is available. Although majority of the responses were positive or towards agreement, there were some striking vari-ations in the responses among some sections of HCWPs. Positive responses to the questionnaire were associated with higher self-vaccination and a decision to vaccinate their children.Conclusion: Vaccine hesitancy was less common among HCWPs in our study. A section of the HCWPs might be disproportionately more hesitant than others. Majority were in favor of vaccinating their children.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.