Predictors of nurses’ intention to accept COVID‐19 vaccination: A cross‐sectional study in five European countries

Abstract

Aims and Objectives:To investigate nurses' intention in accepting COVID-19 vaccination and the factors affecting their decision.Background: COVID-19 vaccination has started in most European countries with healthcare personnel being the first group receiving the vaccine shots. Their attitude towards vaccination is of paramount significant as their role in the frontline could help in the awareness of general population. Methods:A study was conducted in Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Kosovo with the use of an online questionnaire. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale was used. The STROBE checklist was followed for this cross-sectional study.Results: Study population consisted of 1135 nurses. Mean age of the participants was 38.3 years, while most of them were female gender (84.7%) and married (53.1%).Acceptance of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine was higher among Greek (79.2%) and Spanish (71.6%) nurses, followed by Cypriot (54%), Albanian (46.3%) and Kosovo (46.2%) nurses. Key factors for willingness to get vaccinated were male gender, living in a country with a high mortality rate in comparison with low mortality, being not infected with COVID-19, having high level of knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines and having been vaccinated for influenza in the last 2 years. Moreover, trusting the government and doctors regarding the information about the COVID-19 and having high level of fear about this virus were key factors for willingness to get vaccinated. Conclusion:Vaccination of healthcare personnel is a crucial issue not only for their own safety but also for their patients'. Healthcare acceptance to get vaccinated can work as a role model for general population.

How Implicit Attitudes toward Vaccination Affect Vaccine Hesitancy and Behaviour: Developing and Validating the V-IRAP

“…This alternative or concurrent explanation appeared to be supported by the positive bias shown for the relational COVID-negative, indicating that people tended to associate the disease with negative targets more easily than with positive ones. In light of this result, the study supports previous results obtained with self-report measures in which individuals showed higher compliance to vaccination as their risk perception towards the disease increased [ 23 , 45 ], or if they felt the vaccine was safe or not harmful [ 27 ]. Thus, our study showed that the population tends to get vaccinated because they trust the vaccination and fear the disease or the infection [ 2 ].…”

“…In particular, the development of COVID-19 vaccines was very rapid, so people felt that there was a higher risk of this vaccination in comparison to previous ones, but at the same time knew less about its benefits and costs [ 19 ]. The literature on COVID-19 underlined a direct relationship between the perception of the risk of being infected and the propensity to get vaccinated [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. This factor can cause the level of hesitancy to rise six-fold in people who are confident that they will not be infected [ 24 ].…”

Multilevel determinants of COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy in the United States: A rapid systematic review

“…At the individual level, we observed significant gender disparities that females were less likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine relative to males, ( Daly and Robinson, 2021 , Latkin et al, 2021 , Khubchandani et al, 2021 , Reiter et al, 2020 ) which is consistent with the findings reported in Canada, European and Asian countries. ( Ogilvie et al, 2021 , Patelarou et al, 2021 , Murphy et al, 2021 , Wang et al, 2020 ) This result is not surprising as females are more cautious when making health decisions. ( Ek, 2015 ) Our review provided additional clues that females did not believe the vaccine would be safe or effective.…”

Prevalence and Predictors of COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance among Greek Health Care Workers and Administrative Officers of Primary Health Care Centers: A Nationwide Study Indicating Aspects for a Role Model

“…Moreover, WHO highlights that health care sector personnel can play an important role in the successful implementation of a vaccination policy, as they can contribute to vaccination promotion and act as role models for the community [ 3 ]. Recent studies revealed that doctors’ advice for COVID-19 vaccination counts in favor of vaccine acceptance [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. In Greece, the current COVID-19 vaccination project involves all personnel working in Primary Health Care Centers (PHCC) [ 13 ].…”