603 - Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Affect Parental Attitudes Toward Routine Childhood Vaccines? A Study of Parental Vaccine Hesitancy Before and After the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Poster Number: 603
Publication Number: 603.224

David Higgins, University Of Colorado School Of Medicine, Centennial, CO, United States; Sarah P. Blackwell, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver, CO, United States; Angela Moss, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, United States; Sean T. O'Leary, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, United States

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant and ongoing disruptions to childhood vaccinations in the US. While there has been some research on the impact of the pandemic on parental attitudes toward routine childhood vaccines, there are few data sources available that followed parental attitudes before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: We utilized data from a longitudinal survey project, which incorporated a validated survey tool measuring parental vaccine hesitancy, to assess parental attitudes toward routine childhood vaccines before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/Methods: We conducted a retrospective study using 2018-2022 data from the Colorado Health eMoms survey project which randomly samples mothers using birth certificate data at 3-6 months postpartum on a variety of health topics. The survey incorporated the Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines short scale (PACV-5) questionnaire. Using the PACV-5, respondents were classified as vaccine hesitant or not hesitant. Survey data were weighted on key demographic variables using iterative proportional fitting. Multivariable logistic regression was used to measure the independent association between parental vaccine hesitancy and different time periods around the COVID-19 pandemic: pre-pandemic (April, 2018 – February, 2020); early pandemic (April 2020 – December 2020); and late pandemic (January 2021 – February 2022), after adjusting for age, race, ethnicity, primary language, insurance status, education, region of residence, and previous live births.

Results: From April 2018 – February 2022, there were 3,576 total survey respondents. In the population weighted sample, 22.9% of respondents in the pre-pandemic time period were vaccine hesitant compared to 19.4% in early and 23.5% in late pandemic time periods (p=0.2). After adjustment for potential confounders, there were no differences in the odds of parental vaccine hesitancy in the early pandemic compared to pre-pandemic time periods (aOR 0.82, [95%CI: 0.65, 1.04]) or in the late pandemic compared to pre-pandemic time periods (aOR 1.08 [95%CI: 0.86, 1.35]). Overall, there was no evidence of increased parental vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic time period.

Conclusion(s): The COVID-19 pandemic was not associated with increased odds of vaccine hesitancy among mothers of infants compared to the pre-pandemic time period. Our findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly change parental attitudes toward routine childhood vaccination.