Willingness to Vaccinate against COVID-19 among Healthcare Workers: An Online Survey in 10 Countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Yasir Ahmed Mohammed Elhadi,Diala El Chbib,Azza Mehanna,Haider M El Saeh,Zahraa Yahya,Arash Nemat,Ashraf Zaghloul,Omar Hassan Alenezi,Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno Iii,Majdi Mohammed Sabahelzain,Saddam Abdulhakem Alnahari,Bushra Ahmed Alyamani,Yusuff Adebayo Adebisi,Saad Uakkas,Shoaib Ahmad,Eiman Ahmed

doi:10.5539/gjhs.v13n9p42

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Willingness of healthcare workers to be vaccinated is an important factor to be considered for a successful COVID-19 vaccination programme. This study aims to understand the willingness of health workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and its associated concerns across 10 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted in January 2021 among healthcare workers in EMR using an online survey. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS software package version 20.0. RESULTS: A total of 2806 health workers (physicians, nurses and pharmacists) completed and returned the informed consent along with the questionnaire electronically. More than half of the respondents (58.0%) were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, even if the vaccination is not mandatory for them. On the other hand, 25.7% of respondents were not willing to take COVID-19 vaccine while 16.3 % were undecided. The top three reasons for not willing to be vaccinated were unreliability of COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials (62.0%), fear of the side effects of the vaccine (45.3%), and that COVID-19 vaccine will not give immunity for a long period of time (23.1%). CONCLUSION: Overall, the study revealed suboptimal acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among the respondents in the EMR. Significant refusal of COVID-19 vaccine among healthcare professionals can reverse hard-won progress in building public trust in vaccination program. The findings suggest the need to develop tailored strategies to address concerns identified in the study in order to ensure optimal vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers in the EMR.

Highlights

This study aims to understand the willingness of health workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and its associated concerns across 10 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR)
Vol 13, No 9; 2021 address concerns identified in the study in order to ensure optimal vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers in the EMR
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus that was first discovered in Wuhan, China

Summary

Introduction

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus that was first discovered in Wuhan, China. As of 12 July 2021, globally, there have been 187,632,756 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to the WHO, including 4,049,071 deaths. Healthcare workers are at highest risk of COVID-19 exposure and mortality due to work environment conditions, including personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, insufficient staffing, and inadequate safety training and preparation amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Nemat et al, 2020). As of July 2020, the United Nations announced that over 1.4 million infections of COVID-19 are accounted for in healthcare workers, at least 10% of all cases. Comparisons of healthcare workers with and without COVID-19 infection showed an increased relative risk related to personal protective equipment, workplace setting, profession, exposure, contacts, and testing (Gholami et al, 2021). This study aims to understand the willingness of health workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and its associated concerns across 10 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR)

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