Vaccine hesitancy in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries

Abstract

Background: Vaccination has a tremendous impact on both regional and global health. In the past few decades, the tendency for people to hesitate on vaccination has been increasing. Aims: We aimed to assess and explore vaccine hesitancy and its determinants in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Methods: A literature review was conducted to assess peer-reviewed articles published up to March 2021 on vaccine hesitancy in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries using the PRISMA approach. A search was conducted via PubMed and 29 articles were identified. After the removal of duplicates and irrelevant articles, only 14 studies remained in the review. Results: Vaccine hesitancy ranged between 11% and 71% among the public. Differences in rates were noted for vaccine type, with the greatest hesitancy (70.6%) being for the COVID-19 vaccine. The likelihood of accepting vaccination was associated with previous individual acceptance of vaccine, specifically the seasonal influenza vaccine. The most common determinants of vaccine hesitancy were distrust in vaccine safety and concerns about side-effects. Health care professionals (HCPs) were among the main sources of information and recommendations about vaccination. A proportion of HCPs (ranging between 17% and 68%) were themselves vaccine hesitant. The majority had never received any training on addressing vaccine hesitancy among patients. Conclusions: Vaccine hesitancy is prevalent among the public and HCPs in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. It should be continually monitored to understand beliefs and knowledge about vaccination and to address these to improve vaccine uptake towards achieving the vaccination goals in this region.