COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in autism caregivers decreased over time
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
DENVER — A study found that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy waned over time for caregivers of children with autism, according to researchers at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting.
Most caregivers and their dependents received the vaccine following the FDA granting full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s formula last summer.
J. Kiely Law, MD, MPH, director of research operations at the Simons Foundation, said people with autism are at an increased risk for hospitalization from COVID-19, and autism caregivers are historically more likely to be vaccine hesitant.
“Parents were very concerned about their child's health, especially given reports of more severe illness in children with developmental disabilities,” Law told Healio. “But at the same time, parents were also very concerned about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. We wanted to help health care providers better understand parent concerns, since additional support and guidance may be needed.”
Law and colleagues surveyed caregivers of dependents with autism who were enrolled in SPARK, a national research cohort, about their COVID-19 vaccine beliefs twice — first during a period from October to November 2020, before to Pfizer’s adult vaccine receiving an emergency use authorization from the FDA, and again from July to November 2021, during which time the adult vaccine received full approval and the children’s vaccine was authorized. The exclusion of people with missing data resulted in 1,020 caregivers’ responses being used. The researchers used the Area Deprivation Index and chi-square tests to examine any characteristics associated with vaccine hesitancy.
Most of the initial responses from parents indicated vaccine hesitancy, with 41% saying they were “somewhat hesitant” and 20% saying they were “very hesitant,” which Law said was “surprising and concerning” at first.
“Of course, this was before the vaccines were authorized by the FDA,” Law said. “At that time, parents shared that they needed more time to assess the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.”
Characteristics associated with vaccine hesitancy included neighborhood economic disadvantage and increased general vaccine hesitancy (P < .01) and being a young female who believed that vaccines could cause autism.
Of the “very hesitant” caregivers, more than half (53%) indicated that nothing would increase their comfort level, whereas “somewhat hesitant” caregivers wanted more time to evaluate the vaccine’s safety (84%) and effectiveness (77%).
It was “reassuring,” Law continued, that 10 months later, 80% of the surveyed parents responded being vaccinated and 70% of dependents were vaccinated as well, with increased COVID-19 vaccine uptake for the dependent associated with a vaccinated parent and knowing someone who had experienced severe COVID-19, among other factors.
“It is important to continue to counsel parents about getting their child vaccinated for COVID‐19, even if they initially decline,” Law said.