Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May 7;9(5):471.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines9050471.

Prevalence and Potential Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Resistance in Qatar: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey of Qatari Nationals and Migrants between December 2020 and January 2021

Salma M Khaled  1   2   3 , Catalina Petcu  1 , Lina Bader  1 , Iman Amro  1 , Aisha Mohammed H A Al-Hamadi  1 , Marwa Al Assi  1 , Amal Awadalla Mohamed Ali  1 , Kien Le Trung  1 , Abdoulaye Diop  1 , Tarek Bellaj  4 , Mohamed H Al-Thani  5 , Peter W Woodruff  6 , Majid Alabdulla  7   8 , Peter M Haddad  7   8
Affiliations

Prevalence and Potential Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Resistance in Qatar: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey of Qatari Nationals and Migrants between December 2020 and January 2021

Salma M Khaled et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

Global COVID-19 pandemic containment necessitates understanding the risk of hesitance or resistance to vaccine uptake in different populations. The Middle East and North Africa currently lack vital representative vaccine hesitancy data. We conducted the first representative national phone survey among the adult population of Qatar, between December 2020 and January 2021, to estimate the prevalence and identify potential determinants of vaccine willingness: acceptance (strongly agree), resistance (strongly disagree), and hesitance (somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree). Bivariate and multinomial logistic regression models estimated associations between willingness groups and fifteen variables. In the total sample, 42.7% (95% CI: 39.5-46.1) were accepting, 45.2% (95% CI: 41.9-48.4) hesitant, and 12.1% (95% CI: 10.1-14.4) resistant. Vaccine resistant compared with hesistant and accepting groups reported no endorsement source will increase vaccine confidence (58.9% vs. 5.6% vs. 0.2%, respectively). Female gender, Arab ethnicity, migrant status/type, and vaccine side-effects concerns were associated with hesitancy and resistance. COVID-19 related bereavement, infection, and quarantine status were not significantly associated with any willingness group. Absence of or lack of concern about contracting the virus was solely associated with resistance. COVID-19 vaccine resistance, hesitance, and side-effects concerns are high in Qatar's population compared with those globally. Urgent public health engagement should focus on women, Qataris (non-migrants), and those of Arab ethnicity.

Keywords: Arab; COVID-19; Middle East and North Africa (MENA); Qatar; hesitancy or refusal; migrant; vaccine willingness.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

P.M.H. reports personal fees from Janssen, Lundbeck, Otsuka, New Bridge Pharmaceuticals and Sunovion, outside the submitted work. All other authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Attitudinal questions related to COVID-19 vaccine and effectiveness of measures taken to contain the virus in Qatar across three vaccine willingness groups: vaccine accepting, vaccine hesitant, and vaccine resistant. (A) “When a coronavirus vaccine becomes available, I will be concerned of its side-effects”; (B) “Getting the coronavirus vaccine should be made mandatory” (C) “Measures taken in Qatar have been effective in controlling the spread of the coronavirus virus”. “Neutral” labels in (A,B) include somewhat agree, neutral, and somewhat disagree. The label “Others” in (C) includes somewhat agree, neutral, and somewhat disagree response categories.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Sources of endorsement to increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccine by three willingness groups: vaccine accepting, vaccine hesitant, and vaccine resistant. Notes. WHO is World Health Organization. “Other” refers to sources of endorsement including social media influencers, public figures, and other sources as elicited by open-ended responses. “None” refers to the response option that “no type of endorsement source will increase in my confidence in accepting the vaccine”.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO Novel Coronavirus—China. Date: 12 January 2020. [(accessed on 21 January 2021)]; Available online: Http://Www.Who.Int/Csr/Don/12-January-2020-Novel-Coronavirus-China/En/
    1. Countries Where Coronavirus Has Spread—Worldometer. [(accessed on 23 January 2021)]; Available online: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/countries-where-coronavirus-ha...
    1. 2020 Impact Report|Saturna Sustainable Funds|Saturna Capital. [(accessed on 24 January 2021)]; Available online: https://www.saturna.com/sustainable/white-papers/2020-impact-report.
    1. Flaxman S., Mishra S., Gandy A., Unwin H.J.T., Coupland H., Mellan T.A., Zhu H., Berah T., Eaton J.W., Guzman P.N.P., et al. Estimating the Number of Infections and the Impact of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions on COVID-19 in European Countries: Technical Description Update. arXiv. 20202004.11342
    1. Gomes M.G.M., Aguas R., Corder R.M., King J.G., Langwig K.E., Souto-Maior C., Carneiro J., Ferreira M.U., Penha-Gonçalves C. Individual Variation in Susceptibility or Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 Lowers the Herd Immunity Threshold. Epidemiology. 2020 doi: 10.1101/2020.04.27.20081893. preprint. - DOI - PMC - PubMed