Publication date: Dec 04, 2024

OBJECTIVE Childhood immunisation rates in the UK have recently fallen to their lowest level in 14 years. There is currently a lack of temporal evidence on parental attitudes to childhood immunisations and how they have evolved in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, limiting our ability to assess the impact of the pandemic on population-level attitudes to non-Covid vaccines. This study aims to assess trends in parental confidence in childhood immunisations between 2020 and 2022 at varying spatial scales in the UK, while also identifying the socio-demographic factors associated with vaccine perceptions and how these have shifted over time. DESIGN Three cross-sectional surveys in 2020, 2021, and 2022. SETTING United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS 14,720 adults responsible for decisions surrounding the vaccination of children. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The percentage of parents indicating past or future refusal for the MMR, HPV, and influenza vaccines for their child in 2020, 2021, and 2022 as well as Covid-19 vaccine refusal for their child in 2022. A combined metric (refusal) is created to measure parental refusal for any childhood vaccine. Associations between these primary outcome measures and socio-demographic variables are investigated via multiple logistic regression, with effects reported via odds ratios. Additionally, the extent to which parental and caregiver perceptions in giving children immunisations since the start of the pandemic is examined using data from 2022. RESULTS Across the UK overall refusal decreased from 16.2% in 2020 to 14.0% in 2021 (p

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