COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among primary care residents in Middle-Black Sea Region of Turkey

Abstract

Background: Family Health Center residents fights against infectious diseases at the forefront in primary care. This study aimed to identify COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and associated factors among FHC residents of primary care Middle-Black Sea Region of Turkey. Methods: A-web based cross-sectional study was conducted with family health center residents in Turkey between October-November 2020. The main outcome variable was acceptance of a potential COVID-19 vaccines. Also COVID-19 Fear scale was used. The associated factors with acceptance were identified through a multiple logistic regression analysis. In evaluations p < 0.05 value were considered significant. Results: A total of 443 family health center residents were enrolled in the study. In the study group, 65.7% were women, 44% were doctors and 56.0% were other family health staffs. Among the residents, 60.9% reported to willing and 39.1% reported to hesitant to COVID-19 vaccine. Major reasons for acceptance and hesitancy were expection of high protection of vaccines (76.4%) and lack of scientific studies (37.5%) respectively. Men (ORa=1.54), non-smokers (ORa=2.12), those with vaccinated to influenza (ORa=0.33), those with non-infected with COVID-19 (ORa=2.36), and residents who had high level of COVID-19 fear (ORa=2.69) were more likely to be accepted to vaccinate. Conclusions: More than half of the family health center residents had COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. The way to strengthen the process of vaccination is to well informed of family health center residents with newly emerging scientific data and evidence. Key messages: Acceptance of a potential COVID-19 vaccine was not desired level. Informing about current evidence on COVID-19 may be needed in order to achieve better vaccine coverage.