COVID‐19 Vaccine Acceptance and Uptake among Healthcare Workers in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

Background. COVID-19 vaccine acceptance is important in ensuring the widespread vaccination of the population to achieve herd immunity. Establishing the acceptance of vaccines among healthcare workers, who play a vital role in an immunization program’s success, is important. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of social trust and demographic factors on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers. Methods. A cross-sectional survey utilizing an electronic questionnaire inquiring about COVID-19 vaccine uptake, preferences, and concerns was distributed via e-mail to 1,351 North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) healthcare workers of the following categories: medical practitioners, nursing personnel, veterinary surgeons, medical interns, dental interns, paramedics, and pharmacists. These professions were selected as they were granted power to administer COVID-19 vaccines during the period of public emergency by the President of Trinidad and Tobago and were therefore likely to be NCRHA healthcare workers directly involved in vaccine administration services. Bivariate analysis using Chi-squared analysis of association was used to determine the association between the respondents’ characteristics and the acceptance of the vaccine and the association between vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers and trust. The association between the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccines and healthcare workers’ characteristics and trust was established using multinomial logistic regression. Results. A total of 584 healthcare workers took part in the study, and 1.4% showed unwillingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The study indicates that age, profession, trust in international public health organizations, and trust in other healthcare providers predict the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among healthcare workers, with younger age groups and the nursing profession associated with an unwillingness to accept the vaccine. Gender of the healthcare workers does not predict vaccine acceptance. Conclusions and relevance: efforts towards enhanced vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers should take into consideration age, profession, and the trust in international organizations and other healthcare providers. Sensitization programs aimed at informing and creating awareness among healthcare workers about the COVID-19 vaccines should be age-specific as well as occupation-based.

Effects of Covid-19 Vaccines on the Menstrual Cycle: A Cross-Sectional Study.

“…A study investigating the acceptance of the vaccine among healthcare workers in Trinidad and Tobago found that age, profession and trust in international public health organizations and other healthcare professionals predict their vaccine uptake 15 . Researchers in Trinidad and Tobago also reported on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine by examining the side-effects of the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (Oxford, AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine) among healthcare workers 16 .…”

COVID-19 vaccination acceptance (uptake, hesitancy, intention to receive and timeliness of the intention to receive) and the determinants among health workers in Ebonyi state, Nigeria: an analytical cross-sectional study

“…This higher value could have been due to the fact that the study was among the selected categories of front-line health workers implementing the first phase of COVID-19 vaccination and who perhaps were not representative of the entire population/categories of health workers in Nigeria. Similarly, higher values were reported by these foreign studies: 88.0% vaccinated by October 2021 in Trinidad and Tobago,9 and 82.5% vaccinated by May 2021 in Malawi 10. These higher values could be attributed to the fact that the Trinidad and Tobago study was only online and among priority front-line implementers of the vaccination and the Malawi study was among exclusive group of health workers who had been offered the vaccination in their health facilities.…”

“…In addition, the assessment of hesitancy to COVID-19 vaccination in these studies were based on different concepts which in most instances did not reflect the definition of hesitancy by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) Working Group on vaccine hesitancy—delay in receiving or refusal of COVID-19 vaccination despite its availability 6. Few studies were identified to have assessed the uptake of actual vaccines most of which were during the early stages of COVID-19 vaccination when the vaccination was less available and accessible to the entire population or categories of health workers 7–12…”

COVID-19 vaccination acceptance among community members and health workers in Ebonyi state, Nigeria: study protocol for a concurrent-independent mixed method analyses of intention to receive, timeliness of the intention to receive, uptake and hesitancy to COVID-19 vaccination and the determinants

“…Only few studies have assessed the uptake of actual COVID-19 vaccination among the general adult population55 74 75 and among health workers76–79 but most were among subpopulations and when the vaccination was still relatively less available and accessible.…”