Attitude towards and perception of individual safety after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among German cancer patients

Abstract

Purpose Refusal to receive SARS-CoV-2 vaccination poses a threat to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Little is known about German cancer patients’ attitude towards and experience with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Methods Patients were enrolled between 04–11/2021. They completed a baseline questionnaire (BLQ) containing multiple choice questions and Likert items ranging from 1 (“totally disagree”) to 11 (“totally agree”) regarding their attitude towards vaccination and COVID-19. A follow-up questionnaire (FUQ) was completed after vaccination. Results 218 patients (43% female) completed BLQ (110 FUQ; 48% female). Most patients agreed to “definitely get vaccinated” (82%) and disagreed with “SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is dispensable due to COVID-19 being no serious threat” (82%; more dissent among men, p = 0.05). Self-assessment as a member of a risk group (p = 0.03) and fear of COVID-19 (p = 0.002) were more common among women. Fear of side effects was more common among women (p = 0.002) and patients with solid or GI tumors (p = 0.03; p < 0.0001). At FUQ, almost all (91%) reported their vaccination to be well tolerated, especially men (p = 0.001). High tolerability correlated with confidence in the vaccine being safe (r = 0.305, p = 0.003). Most patients would agree to get it yearly (78%). After vaccination, patients felt safe meeting friends/family (91%) or shopping (62%). Vacation (32%) or work (22%) were among others considered less safe (less frequent among men, p < 0.05). Conclusion Acceptance of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is high and it is well tolerated in this sensitive cohort. However, concerns about vaccine safety remain. Those and gender differences need to be addressed. Our results help identify patients that benefit from pre-vaccination consultation.

Longitudinal data on humoral response and neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and subvariants BA.4/5 and BQ.1.1 after COVID-19 vaccination in cancer patients

“…Of interest, the Omicron VOC exhibits extensive immune evasive potential (Cao et al 2022 ; Cele et al 2022 ; Hoffmann et al 2022 ) and low or undetectable levels of nAb against this VOC were reported despite two doses of mRNA vaccines (Chang et al 2022 ; Edara et al 2022 ; Garcia-Beltran et al 2022 ). Furthermore, Omicron subvariants like BQ.1/BQ.1.1, which has become one of the predominant VOC during winter of 2022 /2023, are emerging and have demonstrated an even increased resistance to both nAb and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (Arora et al 2022a , b ; Kurhade et al 2022 ; Planas et al 2022 ; Qu et al 2022 ; Wang et al 2022 ). However, little is known about the efficacy of a booster vaccination against the Omicron VOC in cancer patients and so far, data concerning neutralization capacity against subvariant BQ.1.1 following booster vaccination in immunocompromised patients are limited (Ehmsen et al 2023 ).…”

Prevalence and factors of COVID-19 vaccine refusal among solid cancer patients in China: an application of the health belief model

“…Notably, the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccination in this study (51.8%) was lower than the concurrent prevalence of vaccination in the general population in Shantou (>90%) where the study was conducted during the concurrent time period (64). It was also much lower than that observed among cancer patients in countries such as Canada, Germany, and Japan (26,27,65,66). The vaccination coverage in the sampled cancer patients was hence sub-optimal and probably inadequate to protect the cancer patients against COVID-19 infection.…”

Association of self-leadership and epidemic risk perception on quality of life in post-pandemic mainland of China: a cross-sectional study

“…Especially for men, the role of self-leadership in perceiving the risk of the pandemic is not significant. This may be related to the roles played by men in the family and social work; that is, excluding self-leadership factors, men can better cope with risk perception than women, and it could be due to differences between men and women in their fear of potential or immediate risks and in their perception of safety ( 26 ). Self-leadership is needed to directly regulate risk perception and one’s quality of life (both pathways have high significance).…”