COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance and Its Associated Factors among Cancer Patients in Tunisia.

Houyem khiari,Mohamed Hsairi,Fahmi M’ghirbi,Ines Cherif,Amel Mezlini

doi:10.31557/apjcp.2021.22.11.3499

Houyem khiari, Mohamed Hsairi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.31557/apjcp.2021.22.11.3499

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Abstract

Background:Vaccination is the most effective way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and to protect people who have a higher risk of developing severe illness and death from COVID-19 such as cancer patients. We aimed in this study to determine the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination of the Salah Azaiez Institute (SAI) of cancer of Tunisia patients and to identify its associated factors. Methods:It was a cross sectional study about patients admitted to the SAI for treatment during the month of February 2021. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among Tunisian cancer patients. Results:A total of 200 patients were included in this study with a mean age of 54.4±12.7 years and a gender ratio of 0.5. Only 35.0% of surveyed patients reported their acceptance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Multivariate analysis showed that believing in COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy (OR=3.1 [1.3-7.4]), enrollment in the COVID-19 vaccine platform (OR=8.3 [1.8-38.1]) and the willingness to receive influenza vaccine (OR=3.9 [1.6-9.3]) were independently associated with the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among SAI cancer patients. Conclusions:The COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate found in this study was low. Communication strategies of the vaccination campaigns should provide clear, simple and detailed messages about the efficacy and the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines. More engagement of health authorities to promote COVID-19 vaccination is necessary.

Highlights

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the worst pandemic of the twenty-first century in terms of morbidity and mortality (Feehan and Apostolopoulos, 2021)
We aimed in this study to determine the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination of the Salah Azaiez Institute (SAI) of cancer of Tunisia patients and to identify its associated factors
Multivariate analysis showed that believing in COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy (OR=3.1 [1.3-7.4]), enrollment in the COVID-19 vaccine platform (OR=8.3 [1.8-38.1]) and the willingness to receive influenza vaccine (OR=3.9 [1.6-9.3]) were independently associated with the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among SAI cancer patients

Summary

Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the worst pandemic of the twenty-first century in terms of morbidity and mortality (Feehan and Apostolopoulos, 2021). Several new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have already been identified in South Africa (Tegally et al, 2020), in the United Kingdom (Kirby, 2021; Volz et al, 2021b) and in Brazil (Nonaka et al, 2021; Toovey et al, 2021) and have emerged across the globe (WHO,2020a) These variants spread more and infect more people than other variants (Tegally et al, 2020; Du et al, 2021; Volz et al, 2021a). We aimed in this study to determine the acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination of the Salah Azaiez Institute (SAI) of cancer of Tunisia patients and to identify its associated factors. More engagement of health authorities to promote COVID-19 vaccination is necessary

Methods

Results

Conclusion