A Cross-sectional Study to Examine the Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccine among Family Medicine Board Residents, Saudi Arabia, 2021

Abstract

Introduction: Different levels of vaccine acceptance and many factors were found responsible for low vaccine acceptance such as perceived severity of infection, education, ethnicity, and cultural background. We aimed to determine the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine among family medicine residents as an important portion of health staff who expected to have a high level of vaccine acceptance.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional web-based study targeting all family medicine board residents in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire is self-administered and consists of two sections of questions, section “A” about demographics and clinical related factors of the residents, and section “B” contains questions related to vaccine acceptance and preference. The questionnaire is based on previous surveys, one of them done in Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were calculated to summarize nominal and ordinal data. Chi-squared test was applied to evaluate the association between the determinants and the outcome variables. Any P-value < 0.05 was considered an indication of a statistically significant association or difference.
Results: Out of 215 family medicine residents who responded to the questionnaire, 60% were males and 40% were females. We found about 69.8% of the residents were probably or definitely willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine if it was free or covered by health insurance, while 13.5% and 16.7% were unwilling or unsure about that, respectively. The main reasons for not being willing to receive the vaccine were worries about vaccine safety followed by worries about vaccine efficacy. Knowing patients with COVID-19 in their immediate social network and perceived knowledge about COVID-19 vaccine side effects were significantly associated with acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine. Other factors including, age, gender, marital status, number of children, residency level, presence of chronic disease, previously affected with COVID-19, or knowledge about COVID-19 were not significantly associated with acceptance of the vaccine.
Conclusions: Although all of them were vaccinated, about one-third of family medicine residents were unwilling to accept the vaccine for COVID-19 and a substantial number of the residents were unwilling to recommend the vaccine for family members or patients. Further qualitative research is recommended to explore in-depth causes of vaccine non-acceptance.