Objective To examine the influence of suspension and resumption of vaccination service for children due to the containment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic on vaccination-related knowledge and attitude among the children′s parents for developing targeted interventions.
Methods During a period of gradual resumption of planned immunization service for children from February 28 to March 8, 2020, we conducted an online questionnaire survey among 10 007 parents of children having inoculations at vaccination clinics in Tianjin city.
Results Of all the respondents, 92.99% (9 306) reported their approval for the suspension of vaccination service during the severe epidemic; 97.68% (9 775), 97.40% (9 747), and 97.22% (9 729) reported the satisfaction to the appointment service, infection prevention measures, and on-site orderliness of the resumed vaccination service; 88.97% (8 903) reported an up-graded cognition on the significance of vaccination; 80.92% (8 098) reported the agreement to the knowledge that a delayed vaccination will not affect the immune effect; but 22.42% (2 244) considered that the temporary suspension of the vaccination service alleviated their attentions on the timeliness of their children′s vaccination. Among the respondents, 79.14% (7 920) and 71.67% (7 172) expressed that the COVID-19 epidemic promoted their consideration for having their children to take the pneumococcal vaccine and influenza vaccine – the two vaccines being not included the list of national planned immunization program. There were 73.43% (7 348) of the respondents reporting the consideration to postpone their children′s vaccination during the epidemic period, of them 63.78% (6 382) were mainly concerned about that there could be some fever patients among the attendees at a clinic and 62.41% (6 245) concerned about cross transmission of some diseases. Only 22.01% (2 203) of the respondents expressed the willingness to have multiple vaccinations at one vaccination service to reduce the frequency of vaccination. About one fifth (20.71%, 2 072) of the respondents reported that they would leave the vaccination clinic before the end of observation time mainly due to the worry about cross infection of some diseases.
Conclusion In Tianjin city, the parents of children receiving planned immunization were highly satisfied with the vaccination services for the children during the COVID-19 epidemic period and the suspension and resumption of vaccination service exerted both positive and negative influence on the attitude and practice about their children′s vaccination, suggesting that targeted intervention needs to be promoted among the parents to ensure the effective implementation of planned immunization.
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