Factors Influencing SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Acceptance and Hesitancy in a Population-Based Sample in Italy.

Marco Del Riccio,Lisa Rigon,Angela Bechini,Duccio Giorgetti,Paolo Bonanni,Sara Boccalini,Giuseppe Albora,Massimiliano Alberto Biamonte

doi:10.3390/vaccines9060633

Marco Del Riccio, Lisa Rigon + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9060633

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Journal: Vaccines	Publication Date: Jun 10, 2021
Citations: 37	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Florence

Abstract

Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 represents an effective and safe tool to protect the population against the disease; however, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy could be a major barrier to achieving herd immunity. Despite the severity of the current pandemic, the population’s intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is still not clear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19 among a convenience sample of the general population resident in Italy and the factors associated with hesitancy and acceptance of the vaccine in the context of the current pandemic before the rolling out of COVID-19 vaccines. An anonymous online survey was diffused among a general adult population living in Italy. Participants aged 18 or older and living in Italy were considered eligible. Incomplete questionnaires were excluded. Overall, 7605 valid questionnaires were collected. Most of the participants (81.9%) were inclined to get vaccinated; male sex (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.12–1.71), a high level of trust in institutions (OR 3.93, 95% CI 2.04–7.83), and personal beliefs about high safety of COVID-19 vaccines (OR 56.33, 95% CI 31.57–105.87) were found to be among the significant predictors of COVID-19 acceptance. These data could help design larger studies to address the problem of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the current pandemic.

Highlights

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a viral disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, a new strain of coronavirus first identified in humans in January 2020
According to the WHO’s definition and other studies published on hesitancy, in this study, we evaluated participants’ self-reported vaccine hesitancy using two adapted questions: we asked whether the participants have ever refused or postponed a vaccination recommended by a physician for themselves or a child because they considered it useless or dangerous and whether they would advise others against a vaccination, even if recommended [14,15,16]
Identifying factors that promote acceptance can help policymakers boost COVID-19 vaccination, and the study results reported here provide further evidence of the major role that some determinants of health and personal beliefs can play in vaccine acceptance and hesitancy

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a viral disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), a new strain of coronavirus first identified in humans in January 2020. The WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on. Was one of the first Western countries to be severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic: at first, the pandemic mainly affected the northern and central parts of the country and spread nationwide. More than 1 million people in Italy have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and at least 117,000 people have died [2], but the spread of COVID-19 could be larger than officially reported [3]

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