Demographic Factors Affecting the Attitudes of İnegöl State Hospital Healthcare Workers Towards COVID-19 Vaccine: Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the attitudes of health care professionals involved within the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic process towards the COVID-19 vaccine in line with their demographic characteristics. Material and Methods: A questionnaire consisting of 16 questions was conducted to 510 healthcare professionals working in İnegöl State Hospital between December 2021-January 2022 and who agreed to participate in the study, to determine their approach to the COVID-19 vaccine. The data were collected with Student’s t-test and Mann-Whitney U Test. Chi-square test was used in comparison of categorical variables. Results: While 54.3% of the respondents said that they don’t want to have the COVID-19 vaccine, 69% answered that “Since there is not any adequate research on the vaccine, the vaccine is not reliable”. Were observed that vaccine rejection was most common in the 20-29 age group (72.7%) and pregnant women (100%). In addition, as the education level increased, the number of people considering vaccination increased. The desire to be vaccinated was seen more in married, and it was noted that non-smokers had more COVID-19 (80.3%). Conclusion: Healthcare professionals who participated in study were found to have a negative attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine. Although healthcare professionals have hesitations about vaccine, in fact, noteworthy that they’re afraid of the disease (43.8%). Despite of the pandemic, more than half (54.3%) of healthcare professionals working in İnegöl State Hospital stated that they didn’t think about getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Providing hospital staff with more education about the safety, efficacy, and value of currently available COVID-19 vaccines is critical to vaccine acceptance in this population.