RESEARCH ARTICLE
Investigating the Reasons for the Unwillingness to Get Vaccinated against COVID-19 in the General Population
Kiavash Hushmandi1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 16
E-location ID: e187494452305110
Publisher ID: e187494452305110
DOI: 10.2174/18749445-v16-e230517-2022-233
Article History:
Received Date: 22/12/2022Revision Received Date: 10/04/2023
Acceptance Date: 19/04/2023
Electronic publication date: 23/06/2023
Collection year: 2023
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Aim:
This study sought to identify barriers to COVID-19 vaccination uptake among the general population in Khaf, eastern Iran.
Background:
The sudden emergence of COVID-19 reaffirmed that prevention is preferable to treatment. It is difficult to achieve the goal of widespread COVID-19 vaccination if the general population is reluctant to be vaccinated against it.
Methods:
This study is a cross-sectional analysis of 412 individuals over the age of 18 who were selected via convenience sampling from the general population in 2022. A researcher-made questionnaire was utilized to collect information regarding COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy from the target population over the phone. The questionnaire covered three domains: personal reasons, concerns about the vaccine, and concerns about the Ministry of Health's performance. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS version 22 statistical software using one-sample t-test and multiple linear regression. The level of significance was established at p <0.05.
Results:
This study examined 133 females and 279 males. The highest mean score of COVID-19 vaccination reluctance was associated with the performance of the Ministry of Health (3.77 ± 0.79) and the lowest with personal reasons (2.51 ± 0.57).
Conclusion:
COVID-19 vaccination reluctance was associated more with the performance of the Ministry of Health and the nature of the COVID-19 vaccine. Hence, the Ministry of Health must intervene directly to ensure the success of public vaccination by informing people about the vaccine and alleviating mistrust in society.
