Attitudes, acceptance and hesitancy among the general population worldwide to receive the COVID-19 vaccines and their contributing factors: A systematic review

Abstract

Background High rates of vaccination worldwide are required to establish a herd immunity and stop the current COVID-19 pandemic evolution. Vaccine hesitancy is a major barrier in achieving herd immunity across different populations. This study sought to conduct a systematic review of the current literature regarding attitudes and hesitancy to receiving COVID-19 vaccination worldwide. Methods A systematic literature search of PubMed and Web of Science was performed on July 5th, 2021, using developed keywords. Inclusion criteria required the study to (1) be conducted in English; (2) investigate attitudes, hesitancy, and/or barriers to COVID-19 vaccine acceptability among a given population; (3) utilize validated measurement techniques; (4) have the full text paper available and be peer-reviewed prior to final publication. Findings Following PRISMA guidelines, 209 studies were included. The Newcastle Ottawa (NOS) scale for cross-sectional studies was used to assess the quality of the studies. Overall, vaccine acceptance rates ranged considerably between countries and between different time points, with Arabian countries showing the highest hesitancy rates compared with other parts of the world. Interpretation A variety of different factors contributed to increased hesitancy, including having negative perception of vaccine efficacy, safety, convenience, and price. Some of the consistent socio-demographic groups that were identified to be associated with increased hesitancy included: women, younger participants, and people who were less educated, had lower income, had no insurance, living in a rural area, and self-identified as a racial/ethnic minority.

COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptability Among Women Who are Pregnant or Planning for Pregnancy in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…It reported that being male, being elderly, having a higher income, having a higher education level, being a physician (compared with other healthcare professions), having private insurance and having prior vaccination history were important predictors of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. 53 …”

“…It reported that being male, being elderly, having a higher income, having a higher education level, being a physician (compared with other healthcare professions), having private insurance and having prior vaccination history were important predictors of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. 53 It has have been documented that pregnant women have no increase incidence of COVID-19 infection in comparison to the general population. However, it has been documented that pregnant women who contract the virus may have more severe forms of COVID-19 diseases.…”

Willingness to Receive the Booster COVID-19 Vaccine Dose in Poland

“…This study was based on the anonymous, self-designed, and structured online questionnaire (Supplementary Materials) that was made available through a media release by the Polish Press Agency (the single largest source of news in Poland) and Wirtualna Polska (the most viewed online source of news in Poland), subsequently shared by a number of other media outlets and their associated social media profiles, leading to the snowball effect. Such online research is preferable to swiftly reaching a group of individuals during the pandemic [32] and has been successfully employed in previous investigations on vaccine hesitancy [33,34].…”

Development and validation of a questionnaire to measure attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination and pandemic

“…Until now, several questionnaires and scales have created to examine psychological impact of COVID-19 and mainly examine stress, anxiety or fear (Ahorsu et al, 2020;Arpaci et al, 2020;Feng et al, 2020;Lee, 2020;Lins and Aquino, 2020;Repišti et al, 2020;Taylor et al, 2020;Voitsidis et al, 2021). Also, several other questionnaires have developed to measure knowledge, attitudes, and practices about the COVID-19 (Bekele et al, 2020;Dardas et al, 2020;Patelarou et al, 2020;Saadatjoo et al, 2021;Srichan et al, 2020).…”

“…From early 2021, the ability to vaccinate against the COVID-19 with safe and effective vaccines is the best hope to control the pandemic (Baden et al, 2021; Haas et al, 2021; Polack et al, 2020). Unfortunately the intention to vaccinate against the COVID-19 is low not only in the general population but also among healthcare professionals with some countries showing higher hesitancy rates compared with others (Cascini et al, 2021; Galanis et al, 2020; Galanis, Vraka, Siskou, et al, 2021a, 2021b; Luo et al, 2021; Salomoni et al, 2021; Snehota et al, 2021). Moreover, several factors influence the intention to vaccinate against the COVID-19 such as socio-demographic characteristics (e.g.…”