Attitude Towards COVID-19 Vaccination Among Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction Availability and accessibility of a safe COVID-19 vaccine do not necessarily guarantee an effective means to mitigate the pandemic. However, the fragile hero’s or health care worker's attitude toward the vaccine is of paramount importance to promote its acceptance. So, the current review aims to provide the latest assessment of healthcare workers’ attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccination and its contributing factor worldwide. Methods Peer-reviewed surveys in English indexed via an electronic database in Google Scholar, Science Direct and PubMed were systematically searched. The review was carried out per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA-2009) and registered on PROSPERO (CRD42021265534). Results Originally 8039 articles were searched from three databases PubMed, Science direct, and Google scholar. Finally, 24 studies met the inclusion criteria and made the root for the estimates of the attitude of COVID -19 vaccinations. In about two-thirds of the studies, respondents showed a positive attitude (≥50%) toward COVID-19 vaccination. However, in about one-quarter of the studies, a negative attitude (<50%) against vaccination was reported. Factors related to the attitude of healthcare workers toward COVID-19 vaccination include age, sex, profession, concerns about the safety of vaccines and fear of COVID-19, trust in the accuracy of the measures taken by the government, flu vaccination during the previous season, comorbid chronic illness, history of recommendation, and depression symptoms in the past week. Conclusion Although most studies report that healthcare workers have a positive attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination, quite a few surveys mention negative attitudes towards the use of vaccines, which may reflect missed opportunities or challenges for the international efforts aimed at mitigating the pandemic. Still, we need to continue to make more efforts to change the attitudes of the uncertain healthcare workers to increase the uptake of the vaccine and deal with the multi-faceted impact of infection.

Factors Influencing Australian Healthcare Workers’ COVID-19 Vaccine Intentions across Settings: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Systematic reviews of the international literature report that HCW vaccine acceptance rates between countries varied between 28% and 96% (data published up to March 2021) [5,6] with hesitancy associated with vaccine safety (e.g., side effects), rapid development, and vaccine efficacy and effectiveness (data published up to February 2021) [7]. COVID-19 vaccine intentions [8,9] and vaccine uptake [10,11] also varies by clinical discipline and setting internationally. As of 26 November 2021, there have been 4092 COVID-19 cases among clinical HCWs in Victoria, Australia, with 66% of infections likely acquired in workplace [12].…”

Comparing the Attitude toward the COVID-19 and the 2020/21 and 2019/20 Flu Vaccination Campaigns among Italian Healthcare Workers

“…Several studies reported that in general HCWs showed a positive attitude to the COVID-19 vaccination campaign [2]. Nevertheless, the relatively high rates of HCWs who refused to be vaccinated have raised concern on the difficulties in controlling the Vaccines 2021, 9, 1312 2 of 12 spread of the infection.…”

Determinants of Obtaining COVID-19 Vaccination among Health Care Workers with Access to Free COVID-19 Vaccination: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…With the absence of curative treatment for COVID-19 infection, vaccinating HCWs against COVID-19 is critical. However, variable degrees of acceptance to vaccination were reported [18]. In this study, nearly half (42%) of the recruited HCWs accepted the vaccination.…”