COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Acceptance among Medical Students: An Online Cross-sectional Study in Iraq

Batool Mutar Mahdi

doi:10.3889/oamjms.2021.7399

Authors

Batool Mutar Mahdi Department of Microbiology, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6637-8936

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2021.7399

Keywords:

COVID-19, Vaccine, Students

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Vaccine hesitancy and reluctant had an important obstacle in achieving protection and population immunity against coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). It is essential to achieve high COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rates among medical students and health care workers to provide recommendations and counseling vaccine hesitant population.

AIM: This study aims to identify level of COVID-19 hesitancy, attitude, knowledge, and factors that affect vaccination decision.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done among medical students in Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq. Data collection was done through an online Google Forms questionnaire during 2021 from 810 medical students.

RESULTS: A total of 810 adults’ medical students participated in this study. The majority of the study participants were female (488, 60.2%) while males were 322, 39.8%. Vaccine concept hesitancy among males was 65.21% and rest were vaccinated (34.78%) (OR = 0.13) (95% CI = 0.096–0.177) (p = 0.0001). Same hesitancy from COVID-19 vaccine was same with females (66.80%).

CONCLUSIONS: This study evaluated and shed light on vaccine hesitancy among sample of Iraqi medical students toward COVID-19 vaccination program and considered medical students as leaders and guides in the health system for increased planning and education of the population for COVID-19 vaccine acceptability.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Plum Analytics Artifact Widget Block

References

Behera BC, Mishra RR, Thatoi H. Recent biotechnological tools for diagnosis of corona virus disease: A review. Biotechnol Prog. 2021;37(1):e3078. http://doi.org/10.1002/btpr.3078 PMid:32902193

Kumar VM, Pandi-Perumal SR, Trakht I, Thyagarajan SP. Strategy for COVID-19 vaccination in India: The country with the second highest population and number of cases. NPJ Vaccines. 2021;6(1):60.

Park KS, Sun X, Aikins ME, Moon JJ. Non-viral COVID-19 vaccine delivery systems. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2021;169:137-51. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2020.12.008 PMid:33340620

World Health Organization. Ten Threats to Global Health in 2019. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019 [Last accessed on 2021 Mar 31].

Yin Q, Sun Z, Liu T, Ni X, Deng X, Jia Y, et al. Posttraumatic stress symptoms of health care workers during the corona virus disease 2019. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2020;27(3):384-95. http://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2477 PMid:32415733

Kwok KO, Li KK, Wei WI, Tang A, Wong SY, Lee SS. Editor’s Choice: Influenza vaccine uptake, COVID-19 vaccination intention and vaccine hesitancy among nurses: A survey. Int J Nurs Stud. 2021;114:103854. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2020.103854 PMid:33326864

COCONEL Group. A future vaccination campaign against COVID-19 at risk of vaccine hesitancy and politicisation. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20(7):769-70. http://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30426-6 PMid:32445713

de Noordhout CM, Devleesschauwer B, Salomon JA, Turner H, Cassini A, Colzani E, et al. Disability weights for infectious diseases in four European countries: Comparison between countries and across respondent characteristics. Eur J Public Health. 2018;28:124-33. http://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckx090 PMid:29020343

Ali I. Impact of COVID-19 on vaccination programs: Adverse or positive? Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2020;16(11):2594-600. http://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2020.1787065 PMid:32961081

Larson HJ, Jarrett C, Schulz WS, Chaudhuri M, Zhou Y, Dube E, et al. Measuring vaccine hesitancy: The development of a survey tool. Vaccine. 2015;33(34):4165-75. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.037 PMid:25896384

Kernéis S, Jacquet C, Bannay A, May T, Launay O, Verger P, et al. Vaccine education of medical students: A nationwide cross-sectional survey. Am J Prev Med. 2017;53(3):e97-104. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.01.014 Mid:28237636

Afonso NM, Kavanagh MJ, Swanberg SM, Schulte JM, Wunderlich T, Lucia VC. Will they lead by example? Assessment of vaccination rates and attitudes to human papilloma virus in millennial medical students. BMC Public Health. 2017;17(1):35. http://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3969-x PMid:28056900

Betsch C, Wicker S. E-health use, vaccination knowledge and perception of own risk: Drivers of vaccination uptake in medical students. Vaccine. 2012;30(6):1143-8. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.12.021 PMid:22192850

Dror AA, Eisenbach N, Taiber S, Morozov NG, Mizrachi M, Zigron A, et al. Vaccine hesitancy: The next challenge in the fight against COVID-19. Eur J Epidemiol. 2020;35(8):775-9. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00671-y PMid:32785815

Reiter PL, Pennell ML, Katz ML. Acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine among adults in the United States: How many people would get vaccinated? Vaccine. 2020;38(42):6500-7. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.08.043 PMid:32863069

DeRoo SS, Pudalov NJ, Fu LY. Planning for a COVID-19 vaccination program. JAMA. 2020;323(24):2458-9. http://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.8711 PMid:32421155

Edwards KM, Hackell JM. Committee on infectious diseases, the committee on practice and ambulatory medicine. Countering vaccine hesitancy. Pediatrics. 2016;138(3):2016-146. http://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2146 PMid:27573088

Ali A, Haq N, Naqi S, Hussain A, Rafique M, Ismail M, et al. Assessment of the awareness of COVID-19 among the students enrolled in different medical universities of Pakistan: A cross sectional survey. AL Kindy Coll Med J. 2021;17(1):14-8.

Dawood H, Hwayyiz A, Ibrahim I, Abdul Rahman I. The clinical features of COVID 19 in a group of Iraqi patients: A record review. J Fac Med Bagdad 2021;63(1):8-2.