scholarly journals Global COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance: A Systematic Review of Associated Social and Behavioral Factors

Vaccines ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Choudhary Sobhan Shakeel ◽  
Amenah Abdul Mujeeb ◽  
Muhammad Shaheer Mirza ◽  
Beenish Chaudhry ◽  
Saad Jawaid Khan

COVID-19 vaccines have met varying levels of acceptance and hesitancy in different parts of the world, which has implications for eliminating the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this systematic review is to examine how and why the rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy differ across countries and continents. PubMed, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore and Science Direct were searched between 1 January 2020 and 31 July 2021 using keywords such as “COVID-19 vaccine acceptance”. 81 peer-reviewed publications were found to be eligible for review. The analysis shows that there are global variations in vaccine acceptance among different populations. The vaccine-acceptance rates were the highest amongst adults in Ecuador (97%), Malaysia (94.3%) and Indonesia (93.3%) and the lowest amongst adults in Lebanon (21.0%). The general healthcare workers (HCWs) in China (86.20%) and nurses in Italy (91.50%) had the highest acceptance rates, whereas HCWs in the Democratic Republic of Congo had the lowest acceptance (27.70%). A nonparametric one-way ANOVA showed that the differences in vaccine-acceptance rates were statistically significant (H (49) = 75.302, p = 0.009*) between the analyzed countries. However, the reasons behind vaccine hesitancy and acceptance were similar across the board. Low vaccine acceptance was associated with low levels of education and awareness, and inefficient government efforts and initiatives. Furthermore, poor influenza-vaccination history, as well as conspiracy theories relating to infertility and misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine on social media also resulted in vaccine hesitancy. Strategies to address these concerns may increase global COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and accelerate our efforts to eliminate this pandemic.

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 873
Author(s):  
Maria Giulia Salomoni ◽  
Zeno Di Valerio ◽  
Elisa Gabrielli ◽  
Marco Montalti ◽  
Dario Tedesco ◽  
...  

Vaccination currently appears to be the only strategy to contain the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, vaccine hesitancy (VH) could limit its efficacy and has, therefore, attracted the attention of Public Health Systems. This systematic review aimed at assessing anti-COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates worldwide and at identifying populations more prone to vaccine hesitancy, for which specific interventions should be planned. PubMed database was searched using a purposely formulated string. One hundred out of the 9243 studies retrieved were considered pertinent and thus included in the analyses. VH rate was analyzed according to patient geographical origin, ethnicity, age, study setting, and method used for data collection; data from specific populations were separately analyzed. Overall, this study demonstrated significant differences in terms of VH in the general population and in the specific subgroups examined according to geographical, demographic factors, as well as associated comorbidities, underlining the need for purposely designed studies in specific populations from the different countries, to design targeted programs aimed at increasing awareness for confidence and complacency toward COVID-19 vaccines.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Malik Sallam

Utility of vaccine campaigns to control coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) is not merely dependent on vaccine efficacy and safety. Vaccine acceptance among the general public and healthcare workers appears to have a decisive role in the successful control of the pandemic. The aim of this review was to provide an up-to-date assessment of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rates worldwide. A systematic search of the peer-reviewed English survey literature indexed in PubMed was done on 25 December 2020. Results from 31 peer-reviewed published studies met the inclusion criteria and formed the basis for the final COVID-19 vaccine acceptance estimates. Survey studies on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found from 33 different countries. Among adults representing the general public, the highest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found in Ecuador (97.0%), Malaysia (94.3%), Indonesia (93.3%) and China (91.3%). However, the lowest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found in Kuwait (23.6%), Jordan (28.4%), Italy (53.7), Russia (54.9%), Poland (56.3%), US (56.9%), and France (58.9%). Only eight surveys among healthcare workers (doctors and nurses) were found, with vaccine acceptance rates ranging from 27.7% in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to 78.1% in Israel. In the majority of survey studies among the general public stratified per country (29/47, 62%), the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination showed a level of ≥70%. Low rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance were reported in the Middle East, Russia, Africa and several European countries. This could represent a major problem in the global efforts to control the current COVID-19 pandemic. More studies are recommended to address the scope of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Such studies are particularly needed in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Middle and South America. Addressing the scope of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in various countries is recommended as an initial step for building trust in COVID-19 vaccination efforts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle N. Meyer ◽  
Tamara Gjorgjieva ◽  
Daniel Rosica

AbstractHealthcare workers (HCWs) have been recommended to receive first priority for limited COVID-19 vaccines. They have also been identified as potential ambassadors of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, helping to ensure that sufficient members of a hesitant public accept COVID-19 vaccines to achieve population immunity. Yet HCWs themselves have shown vaccine hesitancy in other contexts and the few prior surveys of U.S. HCW intentions to receive a COVID-19 vaccine report acceptance rates of only 28% to 34%. However, it is unknown whether HCW acceptance remains low following mid-November announcements of the efficacy of the first COVID-19 vaccines and the issuance of two emergency use authorizations (EUA) in December. We report the results of a December 2020 survey (N = 16,158; response rate 61%) administered by a large Pennsylvania health system to determine the intentions of its employees to receive a vaccine when it is offered to them. In a mixed sample of individuals serving in patient-facing and other roles, 55% would decide to receive a COVID-19 vaccine when offered, 16.4% would not, and 28.5% reported being undecided. The distribution of responses varied little across hospital campuses, between those in patient-facing roles and other HCWs, or by area or department of work. The higher rate of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance we observe may reflect the framing and timing of our survey. Among hesitant respondents, an overwhelming majority (90.3%) reported concerns about unknown risks and insufficient data. Other commonly reported concerns included known side effects (57.4%) and wanting to wait until they see how it goes with others (44.4%). We observed a substantial increase in self-reported intent to receive a COVID-19 vaccine after an FDA advisory committee voted to recommend an EUA. Among respondents who completed the survey after that point in time, 79% intend to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (n = 1155). Although only suggestive, this trend offers hope that rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance may be higher among HCWs and, perhaps, the general public than more hypothetical survey results have indicated.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle N. Meyer ◽  
Tamara Gjorgjieva ◽  
Daniel Rosica

Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been recommended to receive first priority for limited COVID-19 vaccines. They have also been identified as potential ambassadors of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, helping to ensure that sufficient members of a hesitant public accept COVID-19 vaccines to achieve population immunity. Yet HCWs themselves have shown vaccine hesitancy in other contexts and the few prior surveys of U.S. HCW intentions to receive a COVID-19 vaccine report acceptance rates of only 28% to 34%. However, it is unknown whether HCW acceptance remains low following mid-November announcements of the efficacy of the first COVID-19 vaccines and the issuance of two emergency use authorizations (EUA) in December. We report the results of a December 2020 survey (N = 16,158; response rate 61%) administered by a large Pennsylvania health system to determine the intentions of its employees to receive a vaccine when it is offered to them. In a mixed sample of individuals serving in patient-facing and other roles, 55% would decide to receive a COVID-19 vaccine when offered, 16.4% would not, and 28.5% reported being undecided. The distribution of responses varied little across hospital campuses, between those in patient-facing roles and other HCWs, or by area or department of work. The higher rate of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance we observe may reflect the framing and timing of our survey. Among hesitant respondents, an overwhelming majority (90.3%) reported concerns about unknown risks and insufficient data. Other commonly reported concerns included known side effects (57.4%) and wanting to wait until they see how it goes with others (44.4%). We observed a substantial increase in self-reported intent to receive a COVID-19 vaccine after an FDA advisory committee voted to recommend an EUA. Among respondents who completed the survey after that point in time, 79% intend to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (n = 1155). Although only suggestive, this trend offers hope that rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance may be higher among HCWs and, perhaps, the general public than more hypothetical survey results have indicated.


Author(s):  
Nikos Konstantinou ◽  
Stella A. Nicolaou ◽  
Christos Petrou ◽  
Myrtani Pieri

Abstract. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on all aspects of human life. Accurately measuring vaccine acceptance and understanding the factors that influence vaccine attitudes and behaviors is crucial to designing public-health interventions to reduce the impact of COVID-19 through vaccinations. The current study adapted the vaccine acceptance scale ( Sarathchandra et al., 2018 ) to the Greek language and assessed the relationship between key components of vaccine acceptance to COVID-19 vaccine beliefs and attitudes, personal and family vaccination history and attitudes, and demographic variables (age, sex, education, and having children). The adapted vaccine acceptance instrument was found to have high internal consistency reliability. Further analyses indicated that younger and less-educated individuals are more vaccine-hesitant, and that vaccine acceptance is influenced by trust in authorities. These findings may have implications for understanding vaccine hesitancy and for the design and implementation of vaccine-related public health policies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malik Sallam

AbstractIntroductionUtility of vaccine campaigns to control coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not merely dependent on vaccine efficacy and safety. Vaccine acceptance among the general public and the healthcare workers, appears to have a decisive role for successful control of the pandemic.AimTo provide an up-to-date assessment of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rates worldwide.MethodsA systematic search of the peer-reviewed English survey literature indexed in PubMed was done on December 25, 2020. Results from 30 studies, met the inclusion criteria and formed the basis for final COVID-19 vaccine acceptance estimates. Results of an additional recent survey from Jordan and Kuwait was considered in this review as well.ResultsSurvey studies on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found from 33 different countries. Among adults representing the general public, the highest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found in Ecuador (97.0%), Malaysia (94.3%), Indonesia (93.3%) and China (91.3%). On the other hand, the lowest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found in Kuwait (23.6%), Jordan (28.4%), Italy (53.7), Russia (54.9%), Poland (56.3%), US (56.9%), and France (58.9%). Only eight surveys among healthcare workers (doctors, nurses) were found, with vaccine acceptance rates ranging from 27.7% in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to 78.1% in Israel. In a majority of survey studies among the general public (62%), the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination showed a level of ≥ 70%.ConclusionsLow rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance were reported in the Middle East, Russia, Africa and several European countries. This could represent a major problem in the global efforts that aim to control the current COVID-19 pandemic. More studies are recommended to address the scope of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Such studies are particularly needed in the Middle East Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Middle and Latin America.Graphical AbstractCOVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates worldwideFor countries with more than one survey study, the vaccine acceptance rate of the latest survey was used in this graph. The estimates were also based on studies from the general population, except in the following cases were no studies from the general public were found (Australia: parents/guardians; DRC: healthcare workers; Hong Kong: healthcare workers; Malta: healthcare workers).


Narra J ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dott F. Rosiello ◽  
Samsul Anwar ◽  
Amanda Yufika ◽  
Rashed Y. Adam ◽  
Mohajer IH. Ismaeil ◽  
...  

Vaccine hesitancy, defined as the reluctance or rejection in receiving a vaccine despite its availability, represents a major challenge to global health efforts aiming to control the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the possible factors correlated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy using a refined well-informed approach can be helpful to address the phenomenon. The current study aimed to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates using four hypothetical scenarios of varying levels of vaccine efficacy and safety profiles in ten Asian, African and South American countries. These scenarios included: 95% efficacy and 20% side effects (Vaccine A), 75% efficacy and 5% side effects (Vaccine B); 75% efficacy and 20% side effects (Vaccine C) and 50% efficacy and 5% side effects (Vaccine D). This study used a self-administered online survey that was distributed during February–May 2021. The total number of study respondents was 1337 with countries of residence as follows: India (21.1%), Pakistan (12.9%), Sudan (11.2%), Nigeria (9.3%), Iran (8.2%), Bangladesh and Brazil (7.9%), Chile (7.7%), Tunisia (7.6%), and Egypt (6.2%). The overall acceptance rates for COVID-19 vaccination were variable based on varying degrees of safety and efficacy as follows: 55.6% for Vaccine C, 58.3% for Vaccine D, 74.0% for Vaccine A and 80.1% for Vaccine B. The highest levels of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance were observed in Brazil followed by Chile across the four different safety and efficacy scenarios. The lowest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were reported in Egypt and Tunisia for the low safety scenarios (20% side effects), and the low efficacy scenario (50% efficacy). The study revealed the potential effect of vaccine safety and efficacy on the intention to get COVID-19 vaccination. At the same efficacy level, higher possibility of side effects caused a large drop in COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate. This indicates the importance of accurate communication regarding vaccine safety and efficacy on attitude towards the vaccine and intentions to get vaccinated. Regional differences in COVID-19 vaccine acceptance were observed with the Middle East/North African countries showing the lowest rates and the South American countries displaying the highest vaccine acceptance rates.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily C. O’Brien ◽  
Haolin Xu ◽  
Lauren W. Cohen ◽  
Elizabeth A. Shenkman ◽  
Russell L. Rothman ◽  
...  

IntroductionEarly COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates suggest that up to one-third of HCWs may be vaccine-hesitant. However, it is unclear whether hesitancy among HCWs has improved with time and if there are temporal changes whether these differ by healthcare worker role.MethodsIn October 2020, a brief survey was sent to all participants in the Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes (HERO) Registry with a yes/no question regarding vaccination under emergency use authorization (EUA): “If an FDA emergency use-approved vaccine to prevent coronavirus/COVID-19 was available right now at no cost, would you agree to be vaccinated?” The poll was repeated in December 2020, with the same question sent to all registry participants. Willingness was defined as a “Yes” response, and hesitancy was defined as a “No” response. Participants were stratified into clinical care roles. Baseline demographics of survey respondents at each timepoint were compared using appropriate univariate statistics (chi-squared and t-tests). Analyses were descriptive, with frequencies and percentages reported for each category.ResultsOf 4882 HERO active registry participants during September 1 – October 31, 2020, 2070 (42.4%) completed the October survey, and n=1541 (31.6%) completed the December survey. 70.2% and 67.7% who were in clinical care roles, respectively. In October, 54.2% of HCWs in clinical roles said they would take an EUA-approved vaccine, which increased to 76.2% in December. The largest gain in vaccine willingness was observed among physicians, 64.0% of whom said they would take a vaccine in October, compared with 90.5% in December. Nurses were the least likely to report that they would take a vaccine in both October (46.6%) and December (66.9%). We saw no statistically significant differences in age, race/ethnicity, gender, or medical role between time points. When restricting to the 998 participants who participated at both time points, 69% were vaccine-willing at both time points; 15% were hesitant at both time points, 13% who were hesitant in October were willing in December; and 2.9% who were willing in October were hesitant in December.ConclusionsIn a set of cross-sectional surveys of vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers, willingness improved substantially over 2 calendar months during which the US had a presidential election and two vaccine manufacturers released top-line Phase 3 trial results. While improved willingness was observed in all role categories, nurses reported the most vaccine hesitancy at both time points.


Author(s):  
Malik Sallam

Utility of vaccine campaigns to control coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not merely dependent on vaccine efficacy and safety. Vaccine acceptance among the general public and the healthcare workers, appears to have a decisive role for successful control of the pandemic. The aim of this review was to provide an up-to-date assessment of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rates worldwide. A systematic search of the peer-reviewed English survey literature indexed in PubMed was done on December 25, 2020. Results from 30 studies, met the inclusion criteria and formed the basis for final COVID-19 vaccine acceptance estimates. Results of an additional recent survey from Jordan and Kuwait was considered in this review as well. Survey studies on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found from 33 different countries. Among adults representing the general public, the highest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found in Ecuador (97.0%), Malaysia (94.3%), Indonesia (93.3%) and China (91.3%). On the other hand, the lowest COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were found in Kuwait (23.6%), Jordan (28.4%), Italy (53.7), Russia (54.9%), Poland (56.3%), US (56.9%), and France (58.9%). Only eight surveys among healthcare workers (doctors, nurses) were found, with vaccine acceptance rates ranging from 27.7% in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to 78.1% in Israel. In a majority of survey studies among the general public (62%), the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination showed a level of ≥ 70%. Low rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance were reported in the Middle East, Russia, Africa and several European countries. This could represent a major problem in the global efforts that aim to control the current COVID-19 pandemic. More studies are recommended to address the scope of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Such studies are particularly needed in the Middle East Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Middle and Latin America.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 524-533
Author(s):  
Lisa Tang ◽  
Sabrina Douglas ◽  
Amar Laila

Background: To create a successful public health initiative that counters vaccine hesitancy and promotes vaccine acceptance, it is essential to gain a strong understanding of the beliefs, attitudes and subjective risk perceptions of the population. Methods: A qualitative analysis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine discourse from 3,731 social media posts on the Twitter and Facebook accounts of six Canadian news organizations was used to identify the perceptions, attitudes, beliefs and intentions of Canadian news organizations’ social media commenters toward taking a COVID-19 vaccine. Results: Four main themes were identified: 1) COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy concerns; 2) conspiracy theories stemming from mistrust in government and other organizations; 3) a COVID-19 vaccine is unnecessary because the virus is not dangerous; and 4) trust in COVID-19 vaccines as a safe solution. Based on themes and subthemes, several key communication recommendations were developed for promotion of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, including infographics championed by Public Health that highlight the benefits of the vaccine for those who have received it, public education about the contents and safety of the vaccine and eliciting an emotional connection through personal stories of those impacted by COVID-19. Conclusion: Specific considerations, such as leveraging the public’s trust in healthcare professionals to act as a liaison between Public Health and the Canadian public to communicate the benefits of the vaccine against COVID-19 and its variants, may help reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.


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