Vaccine Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers in Europe: A Systematic Review

Abstract

This study analyzes vaccine hesitancy (VH) among healthcare workers (HCWs) in 15 European countries. We have undertaken a systematic review by synthesizing data from 46 articles (between 2015 and 2022) encompassing 55,612 subjects. Despite the heterogeneity of the methods in the various studies, we found that physicians had consistently higher vaccination rates than nurses across different countries and different vaccines. Physicians' average vaccination rate was 79% across a selection of vaccines, while that of nurses was 62%. Concerns regarding vaccine safety, information gaps, and the responsibility of healthcare authorities in managing VH are highlighted by qualitative insights. This research contributes to our comprehension of the ways in which VH among HCWs is impacted by healthcare roles, vaccine types, and regional disparities. The insights gleaned from this analysis can serve as a guide for targeted interventions aimed at increasing vaccine acceptance and coverage in Europe, ultimately strengthening public health.

Keywords: Europe; healthcare workers (HCWs); vaccination rates; vaccine hesitancy.

Figure A1

Risk of bias assessment ([12,16,17,20,21,22,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63]).

Figure A2

Risk of bias summary.

Figure 1

Flow diagram for study selection.

Figure 2

The categorization of different studies according to their methods to measure vaccine hesitancy.

Figure 3

This graph represents the vaccine coverage between physicians and nurses in the same country. It was calculated as the median of all studies on VH in each respective country and contains, therefore, a median of VC of different vaccines. Data on vaccine coverage rates on physicians in Austria and Cyprus and on nurses in Poland are missing, and a comparison between physicians and nurses in these countries is therefore not possible.