COVID-19 Vaccination Practice of Children with Rheumatic Disease: A Survey-based Study

Objective: This cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate the vaccination status of children with rheumatic disease and the reasons why children were not vaccinated. Methods: In November 2021, a web-based questionnaire was shared with the families of patients who were over 12 years. The families were asked about the socio-demographic features and the reasons for not vaccinating. Results: A total of 160 patients (90 females) were eligible for the study. The median age was 14.9 (12-17.9) years. The study group comprised 94 patients with autoinflammatory diseases, 43 patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, 18 patients with connective tissue diseases, and 5 patients with vasculitis. The parent-reported vaccination rate was 75% in our patient group. The median children age, the median parental age and parental vaccination rates were lower in unvaccinated patients (for all p-value <0.05). In this study, the most common reasons for not vaccinating children with rheumatic disease were fear of vaccine side effects, not-decided-yet, and concerns related to underlying rheumatic disease and medications used. There was no difference between the groups according to patient gender, diagnosis, and medications they were on. Similarly, education levels of the parents and employment status were comparable between the groups (for all p-value >0.05). Conclusion: These results, together with the results of previous studies, may provide clues to governments and health authorities to understand the drivers of vaccine hesitancy and help increase the coverage of vaccination programs.