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Multicenter Study
. 2022 May 30:10:847282.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.847282. eCollection 2022.

Assessment of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Reluctance Among Staff Working in Public Healthcare Settings of Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Study

Muhammad Bilal Maqsood  1   2   3 , Md Ashraful Islam  4 , Ali Al Qarni  1   2   5 , Zeb-Un- Nisa  6 , Azfar Athar Ishaqui  1   2   3   7 , Naif Khalaf Alharbi  1   2   3 , Murtaja Almukhamel  8 , Mohammad Akbar Hossain  9 , Nayyra Fatani  10 , Ahmad Jamal Mahrous  11 , Muhammad Al Arab  1   2   3 , Fahad Sami Abdulaziz Alfehaid  12 , Zahida Akbar  1   2   13
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Assessment of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Reluctance Among Staff Working in Public Healthcare Settings of Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Study

Muhammad Bilal Maqsood et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination acceptance and reluctance among staff working in Saudi healthcare facilities.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during April - May 2021, among healthcare workers in five public hospitals under the National Guards Health Association located in Alahsa, Dammam, Jeddah, Madinah, and Riyadh. The study used a questionnaire in English language, which was distributed through official email communication among healthcare staff currently working at study venues. The data was analyzed using IBM SPSS v23. An ethical approval was obtained.

Results: A total of 1,031 responses were recorded. Most of the staff had both doses of COVID-19 vaccine (89%). The mean score for vaccine acceptance on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was 3.55 ± 1.6. The mean score for vaccine reluctance on the same scale was 2.71 ± 1.05. Most participants mentioned safety (76.9%) and efficacy (56.3%) as vaccine concerns and believed that COVID-19 vaccine may not be effective because of changes in virus strain (55.5%). The variables of gender and nationality significantly affected vaccine acceptance, while age, gender, nationality, and profession significantly affected vaccine reluctance (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Most healthcare staff were vaccinated, and a high acceptance for COVID-19 vaccination was reported. Several demographic factors affected the vaccine acceptance and reluctance.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccine; Saudi Arabia; vaccine acceptance; vaccine hesitancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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