Vaccine hesitancy of health care workers versus laypersons in an urban society of Iran, lessen learned from an epidemic COVID-10 vaccine hesitancy in Iran

Abstract

Background Vaccine hesitancy in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, endangers attempts of health care organizations to fight against the global spread of the disease. To compare vaccine hesitancy in health care worker (HCW)s versus laypersons in an urban society of Iran

Methods In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the acceptance rate of vaccination in Tehran among HCWs and laypersons (3 important sectors with different socioeconomic level in Tehran were evaluated). This estimated rate was analyzed to see whether there is any association with these study outcomes: basic demographic variables, occupation, socioeconomic status, education level, ethnicity, knowledge and attitude towards vaccination and previous history of COVID-19. All variables were compared between the 2 groups: HCWs versus laypersons.

Results 421 HCWs and 297 laypersons were assessed in this study. The mean±SD of age was 38.09±12.37 and 35.81±11.56 respectively. Most participants were females in both groups (54.4% and 60.6% respectively). Vaccine hesitancy was lower in laypersons than HCWs (p-value<0.001). The hesitancy rate was higher in older participants in both groups (p-values not significant).

In both groups, the highest rates of vaccine hesitancy were observed in low and moderate socioeconomic states (p-value<0.05), in cases with an acceptable degree of education (diploma to master degree) (p-value<0.001) and in non-Fars ethnicity (p-value<0.05). Most hesitant cases in both groups believed that they did not need vaccination and vaccine was not effective in preventing COVID-19 (p-value<0.001).

Conclusions Vaccine hesitancy was significantly lower in laypersons than HCWs. In both groups, the highest rate of vaccine hesitancy was observed in low and moderate socioeconomic states, in well-educated level (diploma to master degree) and in non-Fars ethnicity.