Medical Student Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Background: SARS-CoV-2 led to the COVID-19 global pandemic. In pediatric patients, disease severity can range widely from mild respiratory symptoms to severe respiratory illness and death.
The Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) within one year of the start of the pandemic. The first vaccine approved was shown to have 95% efficacy towards preventing COVID-19. Early studies showed that unvaccinated children were ten times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to unvaccinated children. However, vaccination against COVID-19 has proved to be a great challenge across the country. As of November 2022, completed primary series for the COVID-19 vaccine is 2.6% of children less than 2 years of age, 4.5% for children aged 2-4, 32.1% for children 5-11, and 61.3% for children aged 12-17.
Few studies exist that determine factors to improve uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine administration to hospitalized patients. To our knowledge, no studies characterize factors to improve vaccine uptake in hospitalized pediatric patients. Several studies exist that examine vaccine hesitancy among parents of hospitalized patients, but there is a lack of quantitative data that will aid in implementing targeted programs for improving vaccine access. Objective: This project will determine factors that led to vaccination in inpatient pediatric patients at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in order to help identify potential solutions to increase COVID-19 vaccination among eligible hospitalized patients. Design/Methods: This project is a retrospective case-control study of pediatric patients admitted to the St. Louis Children’s hospital from July 2021- December 2022. IRB approval has been granted for this study. Information is gathered by chart review on selected patients. Through a multivariate regression analysis, we will determine the factors associated with hospitalized pediatric patients receiving a COVID-19 vaccine prior to discharge. Chart review is expected to be completed in December 2023, and analysis will be completed in early 2024.
