COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance: Beliefs and Barriers Associated with Vaccination Among the Residents of KSA

Bayapa Reddy Narapureddy; Khursheed Muzammil; Mohammad Yahya Alshahrani; Ali G Alkhathami; Abdullah Alsabaani; Abdullah M AlShahrani; Adam Dawria; Nazim Nasir; Lingala Kalyan Viswanath Reddy; Mohammad Mahtab Alam

doi:10.2147/JMDH.S340431

COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance: Beliefs and Barriers Associated with Vaccination Among the Residents of KSA

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2021 Nov 24:14:3243-3252. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S340431. eCollection 2021.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Khamis Mushayt, King Khalid University, Abha, 62561, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Abha, King Khalid University, Abha, 9088, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Khamis Mushayt, King Khalid University, Abha, 62561, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Saudi Electronic University, Abha, 62561, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Applied Medical Science, Abha, King Khalid University, Abha, 62561, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization. Control of COVID-19 depends on the potential vaccine and its successful delivery to a large portion of the population to develop herd immunity. All the governments have made a robust plan to distribute the vaccine to their people, but many countries could not achieve adequate vaccination coverage. Hence, this study explores people's beliefs and barriers to vaccination and provides valuable inputs to the government to attain adequate vaccination.

Objective: To know the knowledge level about the COVID-19 vaccine among the residents of KSA. To find out the various concerns (beliefs) about COVID-19 and its vaccine among the residents of KSA. To estimate the vaccine acceptance and understand the barriers to accepting the COVID-19 vaccine among residents of KSA.

Materials and methods: A web-based, cross-sectional study was conducted from April to June 2021 in a restricted environment on the adult (>18 years) residents of Saudi Arabia. The minimum calculated sample was 685; 796 study samples were finally studied to minimize the sampling error. Snowball sampling was used to select the study samples, after meeting the inclusion criteria.

Results: A total of 796 people responded. Only 782 (98.2%) were finally considered after excluding the incomplete information forms. The selected participant's age ranges from 18 years to 80 years. Almost 723 (92%) of the study group knew COVID vaccines. Most of the participants, 370 (47%), preferred USA-manufactured vaccine followed by Saudi Arabia 217 (28%). A total of 259 (33.1%) participants were hesitant to receive the vaccine. Out of 782, half of the participants, 386 (50%), believed the COVID vaccine will prevent the infection.

Conclusion: The government must implement appropriate culturally accepted interventional vaccination educational campaigns to remove the beliefs, worries regarding the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, to increase vaccine acceptance rates.

Keywords: COVID-19; Saudi Arabia; public willingness; vaccine; vaccine acceptance; vaccine hesitancy.