Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in French hospitals

Abstract

Objectives. COVID-19 vaccines have become the new hope for stemming the pandemic. We aimed to assess pre-launch vaccine acceptance among hospital workers in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Administrative Region of France. Methods. We performed a cross sectional study involving all hospital workers in 11 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes hospitals in December 2020. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with vaccine hesitancy. Results. We analyzed completed questionnaires from 1,964 respondents (78% women, mean age 42 years, 21.5% physicians, 41% private care centers). A total of 1,048 (53%) hospital workers were in favor of COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy was associated with: female gender; young age; paramedical, technical, and administrative professions ( i.e., all non-medical professions); no prior flu vaccination; and employment in the private medical care sector ( p <0.05). Distrust of health authorities and pharmaceutical lobbying were the main obstacles to vaccination. Inversely, creating herd immunity and protecting patients and household members were the most frequently cited reasons in favor of vaccination. More than two-thirds of participants feared that the clinical and biological research was too rapid and worried about serious adverse effects. Most participants were interested in written information on the available vaccines, but the most vaccine-hesitant categories preferred oral information. Only 35% supported mandatory vaccination (Figure 1). Conclusions. Targeted written and oral information campaigns will be necessary to improve vaccination coverage among hospital workers who show a surprisingly high hesitancy rate. Imposing mandatory vaccination could be counterproductive.

Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination for Healthcare Professionals and Its Association With General Vaccination Knowledge: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey in Cyprus

“…Similar to our results, 64.7% of healthcare workers in France were opposed to mandatory vaccination, ( 41 ) whilst around 58% of employees in health and welfare care in Germany were opposed to mandatory vaccination ( 42 ). Additionally, we reported smaller proportion of HCPs that were in favor of a mandatory COVID-19 policy, when compared to previous studies conducted among public health professionals (91%) ( 14 ) and occupational physicians in Italy (60.2%) ( 43 ), as well as among pediatricians in Turkey (59%) ( 44 ).…”

Chinese University Students’ Awareness and Acceptance of the COVID-19 Vaccine: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…People with more knowledge about the vaccine are more satisfied with the vaccination. 54 , 65 These suggest that we should analyze the epidemic situation more quickly and promote vaccine-related understanding more actively, hoping to improve their awareness and eliminate hesitation. 66 In addition, we found that the attitudes of surrounding individuals could also reverse the attitude from refusal to acceptance, which is consistent with the results of a Romanian study.…”

What Lies Behind Substantial Differences in COVID-19 Vaccination Rates Between EU Member States?

“…Whether and how the attitudes toward vaccination against COVID-19 are exactly related to the socialist legacy, however, has not been evaluated so far. Previous studies on the matter were mainly concerned with socio-demographic aspects of vaccine uptake in the EU and safety concerns related to the speed of vaccine development (8,9), while cultural, political, and economic determinants were left aside. It is precisely this gap we aim to fill in the rest of this paper.…”

“…To do so, we build upon the results of existing studies from around the world, which have identified a range of factors underlying views, opinions, and intentions of citizens regarding COVID-19 vaccination. In addition to demographic peculiarities, such as gender (10)(11)(12), age (8,13,14), and ethnicity (15,16), it was found that one's formal and informal education also play important roles in this respect. More precisely, evidence suggests that people with a university diploma generally demonstrate lower vaccine hesitancy than low-skilled individuals (14,17,18).…”

“…Finally, and most importantly, a number of studies identified trust as the key piece of this compound puzzle. This applies not only to the assessment of the tools chosen by the authorities to combat the ongoing pandemic (9,20,22), but also to a general confidence in the ruling elites, modern science, the media, and fellow citizens (8,9,25). Given that a growing body of research has identified the "pandemic of distrust" as the main factor explaining the rise of "anti-systemic behavior" in transition societies 2 , this issue owes to be given due attention in our case as well.…”