RESEARCH ARTICLE


Investigating the Reasons for the Unwillingness to Get Vaccinated against COVID-19 in the General Population



Kiavash Hushmandi1
iD
, Seyed Saeed Tabatabaee2
iD
, Sam Saghari3
iD
, Mohammad Arad Zandieh1
iD
, Rasoul Raesi4, *
iD

1 Department of Food Hygiene and Quality Control, Division of Epidemiology & Zoonoses, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
3 Department of Health Services Management, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
4 Department of Health Services Management, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran


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Creative Commons License
© 2023 Hushmandi et al.

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.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Health Services Management, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; E-mail: Raesi.br881@gmail.com


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.

Keywords: COVID-19, Vaccine, Reluctance, General population, Public health, Health system.