Prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in students: A global systematic review

Abstract

Background: Examining the prevalence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine hesitancy and understanding what motivates students to accept or reject a newly promoted vaccine has the potential in preventing rapid spread of infection and optimizing country-wide mass vaccination programs. This systematic review aimed to examine global COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among students, and to identify an up-to-date and concise assessment of most common factors influencing vaccine acceptance and hesitancy around the world. Methods: A systematic search of peer-reviewed literatures indexed in reputable databases was performed. After obtaining the results via screening using PRISMA flow diagram, a total of 35 articles met the inclusion criteria and formed the basic structure of the study objectives. Results: The results revealed that, the worldwide pooled COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy rate was (x̅%)=29.8% (95% CI 23.37–36.23) among students. According to the country count assessment, the pooled vaccine hesitancy has been found to be ups and downs across the countries around the world such as (x̅%)=32% (95% CI 20.04–43.97) in Asia, (x̅%)=(28.11%, 95% CI 18.83–37.40) in the United States, (x̅%)=15.59% (95% CI 8.23–22.95) in Europe, (x̅%)=55.93% (95% CI 40.31–71.55) in Africa, (x̅%)=20.4% in North America, and (x̅%)=22.5% in multi-ethnic areas in the reported student’s COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. In total, 10 key factors were identified. “Side effect” 45.41% (95% CI 29.68–61.14), “safety” 42.27% (95% CI 27.50–57.04), and “trust” 44.95%, (95% CI 26.51–63.39) were the overarching concerns in making students' vaccination decisions. Conclusions: The prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy varied among the students; however, vaccine acceptance or refusal relies on several socio-psychological, societal, and vaccine related factors. This study helps the vaccine policy-makers and health stakeholders gain a better understanding of COVID-19 vaccination drive and design the vaccine promotion strategies. Health educational interventions could be the most preferred approach to improve student’s adherence and knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccination consequences.

Factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy among pharmacy students in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

“…13 Public trust in vaccine safety and efficacy data to uptake it was one of the strongest forecasters of COVID-19 vaccine intention. 23 Worldwide, side effects, safety, efficacy, trust, and information sufficiency were the most important predictors of COVID-19 vaccination decisions among students 7 as well as in general population. 6 Pharmacy students are well equipped to access scientific information and awakened to anti-vaccination rumors, thereby rejecting rumor-mongers associated with vaccine data.…”

“…The theoretical foundation of the potential factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy has been conceptualized from recent reviews. 6,7 Accordingly, items of a multi-item's questionnaire was adopted from theory analysis of the recent studies reflected COVID-19 vaccinations among the various students' sub-groups globally. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The questionnaire addressed multifaceted socio-psychological aspects and common concerns of COVID-19 vaccinations.…”

“…6 Importantly, the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccines was also found to be predominant among students identified as 32% in Asian countries, 28.11% in the USA, 15.59% in Europe, and 55.93% in African regions, while the global pooled hesitancy rate in students was 29.8%. 7 Students of representative health education sectors were potentially influenced by COVID-19; vaccine hesitancy reported 46% in Egypt 8 , 45% and 23% in the USA 9 , 30.5% in Malta 10 , 10.6% in India 11 , 17.8% inIsrael 12 , 62.7% in Uganda 13 , and 75.5% in Zambia. 14 The most prevailing factors associated with distrust of corona vaccine receptivity that led to vaccine hesitancy among students follow the same pattern as they marked in frequencies around the world.…”

“…A recent systematic review deduced that the most common concerns of COVID-19 vaccination decisions among students were side effects, safety, efficacy, trust, effectiveness, vaccine mandate, social influence, information sufficiency, conspiracy beliefs, and religiosity. 7 Due to the long-term existence of COVID-19 in Bangladesh, education is prey to collateral damage adding to the woes of the already hard-hit sector and its students. Although the government has sought to open educational institutions, but sudden unexpected worsening of the pandemic caused them to retract.…”

“…15 To date, however, most of the studies conducted so far in Bangladesh focused on COVID-19 vaccination acceptability among the general people 16,17 and rural community. 18 However, to the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of exploratory study 7 investigating COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among healthcare students, particularly pharmacy students in Bangladesh. This study thus aimed to assess COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among pharmacy students in Bangladesh and to explore the key factors associated with their vaccine acceptance and hesitance.…”