Attitude of Healthcare providers to COVID-19 disease prevention – Personal risk perception and vaccine uptake

Apstrakt

Background: Vaccine hesitancy remains a barrier to

the uptake of vaccines, achieving immunity and

prevention of the spread of COVID-19. Healthcare

providers are at the forefront in the prevention of

COVID-19 and the care of affected individuals; thus,

they are at increased risk of contracting the infection.

The definitive treatment for COVID-19 is yet

unknown; vaccines have been developed and

available for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2

infection.

Objective: To assess the attitude of healthcare

providers to COVID-19 vaccine and factors

associated withuptake of the vaccine

Design anda Setting: A cross-sectional study of

healthcare workersin a tertiary health institution

using self-administered onlineGoogle-survey

questionnaire.

Participants: Healthcare workers in a tertiary health

institution

Data Collection: Information obtained included

socio-demographic and professional characteristics,

knowledge about vaccines, perception, and

willingness to get vaccinated. Datawas analysed

using IBM SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics

and Chi-square testswere done. Level of significance

was set at p<0.05.

Result: About 170 medical healthcare workers

participated in the study - medical doctors-62.9%,

nurses-34.7% and dentists-2.9%; majority-66.5%

had practiced for <10years.Mean age was

36.86(±7.82) years; mostly female(55.9%) and

married (78.2%). About 93.3% considered

themselves at risk of infection and 71.2% perceived

themselves as high-risk. Routine screening was

acceptable to 78.8%; 29.4% had previous positive

test, 93.5% had contact with persons positive for

coronavirus infection and 80% had managed affected

patients. Majority believedvaccine was safe (82.9%)

and prevented infection(80.6%); 27.1% and 67.7%

were concerned about the constituents of the vaccine

and long-term adverse effects respectively. 73.5%

of the respondents were willing to receive

vaccination, 70% were vaccinated and 74.7% were

willing recommend it to others. Uptake of vaccine

was associated with perceived risk(p=0.035), level

of perceived risk(p=0.01) and previous infection/

COVID-19 disease(p=0.03).

Conclusion: Healthcare workers constitute are a

high-risk group; and an important source of

counselling and health education for the general

population. Therefore, positive perception about

safety and efficacy, knowledge, and uptake of

vaccine among healthcare providers must be

optimized.