Objective To understand the degree of hesitancy among parents regarding their children′s vaccination with non-immunization program vaccines and its influencing factors, thus providing a basis for formulating targeted intervention measures.

Methods A multi-stage stratified sampling method was used to select 4 182 parents of children aged 1-6 who accompanied their children to vaccination in 60 community health service centers in urban, suburban, and exurban areas of Beijing. The questionnaire survey was conducted with the Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) scale, and the score of the scale, the proportion of vaccine hesitancy and its influencing factors were analyzed.

Results The median (interquartile range) of the PACV scale score was 33.33 (20.00, 43.33). The proportion of vaccine hesitancy was 13.03% (545/4 182), and the hesitancy proportions for the 15 items in the scale ranged from 6.46% to 83.62%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that parents of children with non-local household registration (OR=1.313, 95%CI: 1.072–1.607) and male parents (OR = 1.487, 95%CI: 1.240–1.783) had a higher risk of vaccine hesitancy. In contrast, parents aged 30–39 years (OR = 0.668, 95%CI: 0.529–0.843), 40–49 years (OR = 0.690, 95%CI: 0.503-0.947), and ≥50 years (OR = 0.431, 95%CI: 0.267–0.696), as well as those with an annual household income of 100 000–190 000 yuan (OR = 0.644, 95%CI: 0.521–0.797), 200 000–490 000 yuan (OR = 0.567, 95%CI: 0.440–0.730), and ≥500 000 yuan (OR = 0.578, 95%CI: 0.393–0.849), and parents who were homemakers or unemployed (OR = 0.390, 95%CI: 0.232–0.656) had a lower risk of vaccine hesitancy. The top three items in terms of the proportion of parents′ hesitation were concern about children suffering severe adverse reactions after receiving paid vaccines (83.62%), the belief that children were vaccinated with more paid vaccines than needed (73.34%), and concerns about the safety of paid vaccines (70.30%).

Conclusions The overall proportion of vaccine hesitancy among parents of children in Beijing regarding non-immunization program vaccines is relatively low, while the popularization and education of vaccine knowledge should still be strengthened to further reduce vaccine hesitancy.