Factors Influencing Australian Healthcare Workers' COVID-19 Vaccine Intentions across Settings: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Jessica Kaufman,Ruby Biezen,Jane Munro,Kathleen L Bagot,J Simon Bell,Carol Jos,Jane Tuckerman,Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis,Lena Sanci,Julie Leask,Margie Danchin,Holly Seale,Monsurul Hoq,Jane Oliver,Darren Suryawijaya Ong

doi:10.3390/vaccines10010003

Abstract

Healthcare workers’ COVID-19 vaccination coverage is important for staff and patient safety, workforce capacity and patient uptake. We aimed to identify COVID-19 vaccine intentions, factors associated with uptake and information needs for healthcare workers in Victoria, Australia. We administered a cross-sectional online survey to healthcare workers in hospitals, primary care and aged or disability care settings (12 February–26 March 2021). The World Health Organization Behavioural and Social Drivers of COVID-19 vaccination framework informed survey design and framing of results. Binary regression results adjusted for demographics provide risk differences between those intending and not intending to accept a COVID-19 vaccine. In total, 3074 healthcare workers completed the survey. Primary care healthcare workers reported the highest intention to accept a COVID-19 vaccine (84%, 755/898), followed by hospital-based (77%, 1396/1811) and aged care workers (67%, 243/365). A higher proportion of aged care workers were concerned about passing COVID-19 to their patients compared to those working in primary care or hospitals. Only 25% felt they had sufficient information across five vaccine topics, but those with sufficient information had higher vaccine intentions. Approximately half thought vaccines should be mandated. Despite current high vaccine rates, our results remain relevant for booster programs and future vaccination rollouts.

Highlights

Healthcare workers (HCWs) were prioritised to receive COVID-19 vaccines in most countries, due to the high occupational risk of COVID-19 infection [1,2,3,4]
National mandatory vaccination policies apply to aged care workers [14] and state policies apply for other HCWs, which vary across jurisdictions and settings [15,16]
Australia’s vaccination program commenced 22 February 2021, with Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) and AstraZeneca (Oxford, ChAdOx1) COVID-19 vaccines available to those prioritised in Phase 1a and 1b [3]

Summary

Introduction

Healthcare workers (HCWs) were prioritised to receive COVID-19 vaccines in most countries, due to the high occupational risk of COVID-19 infection [1,2,3,4]. As of 26 November 2021, there have been 4092 COVID-19 cases among clinical HCWs in Victoria, Australia, with 66% of infections likely acquired in workplace [12]. Of these workplace cases, 50% have been in aged care or disability care workers and 39% in nurses, with most occurring prior to the availability of COVID-19 vaccines [12]. Rates of vaccine uptake among Australian HCWs are only reported separately for aged care workers, of whom 95.8% (n = 252,249) were fully vaccinated (10 November 2021) [13]. There are no publicly available data on coverage for other Australian HCWs by role or workplace setting

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion