Socioeconomic disparities in childhood vaccine hesitancy among parents in China: The mediating role of social support and health literacy
Parental vaccine hesitancy is a major obstacle to childhood vaccination. We examined parental socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in vaccine hesitancy, and the potential mediating roles of perceived social support and health literacy. A questionnaire survey was given to parents with children aged...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
|
| Series: | Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/21645515.2024.2444008 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Parental vaccine hesitancy is a major obstacle to childhood vaccination. We examined parental socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in vaccine hesitancy, and the potential mediating roles of perceived social support and health literacy. A questionnaire survey was given to parents with children aged below 6 years from six provinces in China. SES was examined by educational attainment, annual household income, and a subjective measure of SES (using a scale of 1–10). Linear regression was applied to assess the association between SES and vaccine hesitancy. Bootstrapping mediation analysis was performed with 5,000 samples bootstrapped. A total of 1,638 parents were included. Using annual household income > 200,000 Chinese yuan (CNY) as a reference, parents with lower household income (CNY 100,001–150,000) experienced higher vaccine hesitancy. Educational attainment was not associated with vaccine hesitancy. Subjective SES had a U-shaped relationship with vaccine hesitancy. Perceived social support and health literacy independently and sequentially mediated the effects of subjective SES (indirect effect: −0.240) and annual household income (indirect effect: 1.250 for ≤ CNY 100,000 and 0.759 for CNY 100,001–150,000) on vaccine hesitancy. Socioeconomic disparities influenced parental vaccine hesitancy in China, which were mediated by perceptions of social support and health literacy. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2164-5515 2164-554X |