COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers in China: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background Since the successful development of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine, COVID-19 vaccination has been actively advocated all over the world. As the key population for COVID-19 vaccination, the acceptance of Healthcare Workers (HCWs) is not only related to their risk of contracting COVID-19 infection at work, but also affects the decision of the general population on COVID-19 vaccination. Currently, a series of observational studies have been conducted on the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines among HCWs in China, but there are presently no all-inclusive reviews. Therefore, this paper reviewed to identify a reliable estimate of acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccine among HCWs in China. Methods We conducted a search on PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure), Wanfang Database, CBM (Chinese Biomedical Literature Database) and VIP database (Chinese Scientific Journal Database) from January 2020 to June 2022. The quality of included articles was estimated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment tool suitable for cross-sectional studies and STATA 16 was used for analysis, A random-effects model was used to calculate acceptance rate for COVID-19 vaccine, as well as subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis. Result This review included 18 studies involving 45,760 subjects, all of which were of medium or high quality. Meta-analysis results represented that, the pooled estimated acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccine among HCWs in China was 78% (95%CI: 73–83%), and the pooled acceptance rate in 2021 (82%, 95%CI: 78–86%) was significantly higher than that in 2020 (73%, 95%CI: 65%-81%). Subgroup analysis showed different acceptance rates for COVID-19 vaccine among HCWs with different characteristics. Conclusion The result revealed that HCWs in China generally have a high acceptance rate of COVID-19 vaccines, but the acceptance rate varies with different characteristics of the population. Therefore, corresponding training should be carried out for HCWs with different characteristics, and they should play an exemplary and leading role in COVID-19 vaccination, so as to improve the vaccination rate of the whole population and form an immune barrier at an early date.

“I Would Rather Take the Vaccine Than Undergo Weekly Testing”: Correlates of Health Workers’ Support for COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

“…Our rate of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among HCWs (35.9%) is comparable to reports from other parts of Nigeria (33.3%) [ 14 ], but lower than findings by others (64.6%) [ 45 ]. Our uptake is also lower than rates in Asia (67.2–76.98%) [ 10 , 15 ], Europe (76.9%) [ 6 ], and the US (50–96%) [ 46 ]. Possible explanations for these variations include disparities in study population, timeframe, methods and measurement, vaccine knowledge, vaccine confidence, safety, risk perception and the enforcement of mandates.…”

“…Furthermore, among members of the public, the figures varied from 40% across Africa to 73% in Australia [ 12 , 13 ]. COVID-19 vaccine uptake among HCWs also varies from 33% in Nigeria [ 14 ] to 77% in France [ 6 ] and 78% in China [ 15 ].…”

COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake among Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…COVID-19 vaccination of healthcare workers is important both for protection of the individuals from SARS-CoV-2 and as an infection control practice to reduce nosocomial transmission of the virus since a significant proportion of COVID-19 inpatients acquire their infection in hospital [ 19 , 20 ]. A great number of studies have already investigated the intention of HCWs to accept a COVID-19 vaccine, finding low pooled acceptance rates: 63.5% in a meta-analysis with 50,940 HCWs worldwide [ 21 ] and 78% in a meta-analysis with 45,760 HCWs in China [ 22 ].…”

“…Several systematic reviews and meta-analyses investigated intention of HCWs to accept a COVID-19 vaccine [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Evidence shows that the main predictors for COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among HCWs are male gender, older age, and previous influenza vaccination.…”

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates and predictors among the Egyptian general population and Healthcare workers, the intersectionality of age and other factors

“…Therefore, HCWs' stance towards vaccines might change as more information on how COVID-19 vaccines are developed and tested becomes available. It should be noted that higher pooled acceptance rate (78%) among HCWs in China was reported which was explained by the availability of comprehensive scientific evidence and tremendous information related to COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines at an unprecedented pace which drive HCWs to become more aware of safety and effectiveness of different vaccines 24 . www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Evidence suggests the importance of building the trust of guardians in COVID-19 vaccines to be able to achieve children vaccination.…”