COVID-19 vaccination perception and uptake among cancer patients in Guangzhou, China

Abstract

Patients with cancer are considered at high risk of COVID-19 related complications with higher mortality rates than healthy individuals. This study investigated the perception, acceptance, and influencing factors of COVID-19 vaccination among cancer patients in Guangzhou, China. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Guangzhou, China from August to November 2021 in two tertiary medical centers. Outpatients were recruited through hospital posters to complete a questionnaire including demographics, medical history, knowledge, and attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 vaccination status. Chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression were used to analyze predictors for acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination. In total, only 75 out of 343 patients (21.87%) had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Twenty-one patients (6.12%) had received a recommendation about COVID-19 vaccination from their physicians. Patients who were recommended by physicians to get vaccinated (aOR = 11.71 95% CI: 2.71–50.66), with a monthly income of more than CNY 5000 (aOR = 3.94, 95% CI: 1.88–8.26) were more likely to have received COVID-19 vaccination. Cancer patients who had been diagnosed for more than one year (aOR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.09–0.51), had received multiple cancer treatment strategies (aOR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.16–0.74), worried about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines (aOR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.11–0.40), were less likely to have received COVID-19 vaccination. COVID-19 vaccination uptake among cancer patients was insufficient. The proportion of cancer patients receiving vaccination recommendations from physicians remains inadequate. Physicians are expected to play an essential role in patients’ knowledge of the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

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

“…These results suggest older age is a predictive factor for adequate vaccination against COVID-19 among patients with cancer. Furthermore, positive attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines have also been associated with higher acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with cancer in other studies [26,[28][29][30][34][35][36][37]. In our survey, positive attitudes, such as believing that COVID-19 vaccines are safe in patients with cancer also increased the likelihood of having an adequate vaccination status (≥ 3 doses).…”

Outcomes of COVID‐19 in patients with lymphomas participating in registered clinical trials: A real‐world study from China in the Omicron outbreak era

“…Vaccines of COVID‐19 have been proven to be safe and effective for preventing infection or attenuating disease severity and are also recommended to cancer patients. However, the concerns of vaccines included cancer progression, potential long‐term toxicity, or interfere with treatment resulted in a low acceptance of the vaccine in cancer patients in China 29–31 . In our study, only 34.5% of patients were vaccinated against COVID‐19 and 10% of patients had received the third dose of vaccines.…”

“…However, the concerns of vaccines included cancer progression, potential long-term toxicity, or interfere with treatment resulted in a low acceptance of the vaccine in cancer patients in China. [29][30][31] In our study, only 34.5% of patients were vaccinated against COVID-19 and 10% of patients had received the third dose of vaccines. The lower vaccine serologic response was reported in HM patients, particularly those with lymphoid cancers and/or receiving anti-CD20 therapy with impaired immune function [32][33][34][35] ; thus, the protective effect of vaccine might be limited in these patients.…”

Mapping COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake amongst Chinese residents: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The second sensitivity analysis was the exclusion of Fu et al [23] from the meta-analysis for income. This was done in order to assess whether this study was a detrimental outlier and played a significant role in the overall uptake outcome.…”

“…Furthermore, this systematic review found that the lowest acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccination was amongst patients with chronic diseases (42.6%). These patients were diagnosed with diseases such as asthma, HIV/AIDS, cancer, and hypertension [39,27,23,19,20].…”