key: cord-0833558-171ztf43
authors: Wong, Wilfred Hing-Sang; Leung, Daniel; Chua, Gilbert T.; Duque, Jaime Sou Da Rosa; Peare, Sinéad; So, Hung Kwan; Chan, Sau Man; Kwan, Mike Yat-Wah; Ip, Patrick; Lau, Yu Lung
title: Survey data on the attitudes of adolescents in Hong Kong towards the COVID-19 vaccination
date: 2022-03-18
journal: Data Brief
DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2022.108069
sha: d3e372451ff587362ea5da9495c7bafdb5b4e317
doc_id: 833558
cord_uid: 171ztf43

To our best knowledge, this article presents a novel data set on Hong Kong's adolescents’ attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccination, excluding their parental opinions. This research used a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, which collects data from the population at a single point in time. Our questionnaire was designed in both English and Chinese for the adolescents’ convenience, using a self-designed, online questionnaire website, which was sent to 30 secondary schools across Hong Kong at the beginning of June 2021, to be completed by 31(st) June 2021. This gathered a total of 2609 surveys, excluding those which did not fit into the criteria. As the data has identified factors that affect vaccine hesitancy, government authorities can use the data to choose effective ways to promote the COVID-19 vaccination and to educate the general population about the benefits of receiving it.

To our best knowledge, this article presents a novel data set on Hong Kong's adolescents' attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccination, excluding their parental opinions. This research used a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, which collects data from the population at a single point in time. Our questionnaire was designed in both English and Chinese for the adolescents' convenience, using a self-designed, online questionnaire website, which was sent to 30 secondary schools across Hong Kong at the beginning of June 2021, to be completed by 31 st June 2021. This gathered a total of 2609 surveys, excluding those which did not fit into the criteria. As the data has identified factors that affect vaccine hesitancy, government authorities can use the data to choose effective ways to promote the COVID-19 vaccination and to educate the general population about the benefits of receiving it.

Infectious Diseases

Attitude of receiving COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents 

 This data provides information on what factors and reasons affect vaccine hesitancy and willingness in adolescents in Hong Kong, which is important for understanding how to improve the general uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.

 Although parental consent is required for adolescents to be vaccinated in Hong Kong, this data gives an understanding of adolescents' thinking and the associating factors for their vaccination behaviours.

 The data can be useful for researchers who want to further investigate the factors and reasons for vaccine acceptance/hesitancy in adolescents.

 The dataset can be used to further research and understand how the COVID-19 vaccine is discussed and viewed among the adolescents. A comparison to a future study can be done to see the change in attitudes and opinions after the implementation of interventions.

 The data can assist the Hong Kong Government and other national governments in choosing effective ways to promote the COVID-19 vaccination and to educate the general population about the benefits of receiving it.

The survey data of the attitude of receiving COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents from June 7, 2022 to June 30, 2022 were collected from the official website (covayouthwill.hkuhealth.com) of online questionnaire which was self-developed by the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong. Table 1 and Table 2 show the top ten reasons that associate with intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination or not among the participants. The questionnaire is provided as a supplementary file. Supplementary material shows the online questionnaire that all the students had to complete. It contains a series of yes-no questions and multiple-choice questions. The multiple-choice questions have an "Others (please specify)" option. The questionnaire is split into two sections: "Parental information" and "Student's information", with the latter being the main section.

Vaccine hesitancy remains a significant barrier to achieve herd immunity [2] . The WHO has even considered it to be one of the leading threats to public health in 2019 [3] . Vaccine hesitancy refers to the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite the availability of vaccination services [4, 5] . It is influenced by factors classified into three main categories: confidence (lack of trust in the safety and efficacy of a vaccine), complacency (low perception of disease risk) and convenience (availability and affordability) [4, 5] . The factors and reasons listed in the questionnaire (supplementary material) are inspired by these three categories.

The dataset was collected using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. 33 secondary schools from 637 secondary schools in Hong Kong were invited randomly to answer the questionnaire, but 3 schools withdrew due to a similar study being conducted by the Hong Kong Government at a similar time. The questionnaire was shared with 30 secondary schools across Hong Kong, who have participated in previous vaccination-related research or have been involved in education seminars conducted by the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, the University of Hong Kong. The 30 secondary schools covered 14 out of the 18 districts in Hong Kong. In total 3662 participants from 3-4 classes selected by the participated schools were invited to join this survey. The survey ran for a monthit was sent at the beginning of June 2021 and was required to be completed by 30 th June 2021. A total of 2609 surveys were collected, after excluding 224 participants that were not within the adolescent age range (12 to 18 years) and 82 due to incomplete answers.

The data was downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet from the self-developed online questionnaire website (covayouthwill.hkuhealth.com). The data was then imported into the digital system IBM SPSS Statistic 21. The top ten reasons of intend to receive COVID-19 vaccine is listed in Table 1 . The top ten reasons of not intend to receive COVID-19 vaccine is listed in Table 2 .

This study has been approved by the Hong Kong University/ Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster IRB Committee (IRB No: UW 21-157). Informed consent was collected from all those participating. The legal guardians of all participants have agreed with the participation of the minors in the study. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. ☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:

Adolescents' attitudes to the COVID-19 vaccination

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Worldwide: A Concise Systematic Review of Vaccine Acceptance Rates

Parents' Intentions to Vaccinate Their Children Against COVID-19

Vaccine hesitancy: Definition, scope and determinants