Attitudes towards COVID‑19 vaccination in patients with cancer: A cross‑sectional study of 12 oncology centers

Abstract

Patients with cancer are a high-priority population for COVID-19 vaccination, as per guideline recommendations. The present cross-sectional study was performed to assess the perception of patients with cancer from Romania regarding COVID-19 vaccines. The study included 932 patients with solid and hematologic malignancies. This was a multicenter study including 12 oncology centers located in Western and Northwestern Romania. Between December 2021 and January 2022, patients with cancer completed an individual paper questionnaire regarding acceptance of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, type of vaccine, side effects and source of information. During the first year of the vaccination campaign in Romania, 58.05% (541/932) of the investigated patients received COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccination rate was highest in the 61-70 year age group (61.22%). The most frequently used vaccine was Pfizer-BioNTech (72%). There was a statistically significant association between the rate of vaccination and the area of residence and level of education (P<0.001), with rural residence and a lower level of education being predictive factors for COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. Patients living in rural areas used non-medical sources (e.g. mass media, social platforms) as their main source of information (53.40%, 204/382), whereas patients living in urban areas (64.90%, 357/550) used predominantly medical sources (e.g. recommendations from oncologists and general practitioners). The main source of information among non-vaccinated patients was mass media (e.g. television, radio); 72.38% vs. 29.67% among vaccinated patients. For the latter, the primary source of information was the recommendations made by oncologists (59.70%) and general practitioners (56.76%). The most commonly reported side effect was injection site pain (20-33% for the first dose and 5-27% for the second dose). In conclusion, the present study confirmed that patients with cancer may be reluctant to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, mainly due to the fear of its potential side effects. Although there is scientific evidence to support the efficacy and safety of vaccines, the primary source of information for patients may affect vaccine uptake, thus affecting the efforts to stop the pandemic. Furthermore, the

Vaccination status and attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in patients undergoing active cancer treatment in a referral center in Mexico: a survey study

“…As in our study, mass media has been reported as the main source of information on COVID-19 among patients with cancer in previous studies [35,38,39]. Contrary to our results, in a study by Lazar et al among patients with cancer, more unvaccinated as compared to vaccinated patients used mass media as their main source of information on COVID-19 (72.4% vs. 29.7%, respectively) [27]. Notably, some evidence suggests that patients with cancer were more likely to accept COVID-19 vaccination if they were advised to receive it by their oncologists [12, 15, 23-25, 27, 30, 37].…”

“…In our survey, older age increased the likelihood of having an adequate vaccination status (≥ 3 doses) against COVID-19. Likewise, older age has been repeatedly associated with a higher likelihood of vaccine acceptance among patients with cancer in other studies [12,14,15,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Interestingly, a single-center study in France evaluating acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination and vaccine safety among older patients with cancer (≥ 70 years) conducted in January 2021 found a vaccine acceptance rate of 82.6% and an adequate vaccination rate (2 doses) reached 75.3% [33].…”

Using Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) to Compare Premature Mortality between Romanian Counties to Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in 2020 and 2021

“…The pandemic has led to various studies focusing on different aspects of the situation in Romania. For example, research has been conducted to understand attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination among cancer patients [ 11 ], as well as the reasons for refusing vaccination against COVID-19 in the Romanian population [ 12 ]. In addition, the impact of the pandemic on different sectors, such as healthcare and education, has been explored.…”