Background: The fear of being infected with the SARS-CoV-2 has become widespread, especially among older adults. Information campaigns to promote mass vaccination against COVID-19 are a key element in controlling and preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, their success primarily depends on vaccination coverage in a given population. The aim of this study was to assess the severity of COVID-19 anxiety and attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines among older adults in Poland.
Methods: This pilot study was conducted among a total of 127 older participants, including 108 students (85%) of Third Age Universities in Bialystok and 19 patients (15%) of the Department and Clinic of Geriatrics of the Hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration in Bialystok. The study used a diagnostic survey based on an author-designed questionnaire and four standardized psychometric tools: The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), The Drivers of COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance Scale (DrVac-COVID19S), and Scale to Measure the Perception of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines Acceptance (The VAC-COVID-19 Scale).
Results: COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the study group was 88.2%, with three doses in most cases. We found a negative vaccination status only in women taking part in the study. Men scored significantly higher on DrVac-COVID19S and its Value subscale, and markedly lower on FCV-19S. We did not observe significant differences in the scales' scores between age groups. Respondents recruited from the Third Age Universities had significantly higher scores than geriatric clinic patients in the Knowledge subscale of DrVac-COVID19S. In the case of FCV-19S, no correlation with the results obtained in other scales used in the study was found. Additionally, no correlation was found between CAS scores and the following scales: DrVac-COVID19S (total), DrVac-COVID19S Knowledge (K) subscale, DrVac-COVID19S Autonomy (A) subscale and VAC-COVID-19-Scale-positive subscale. The other scales were strongly correlated with each other-the correlations were statistically significant.
Conclusions: Subjective COVID-19 anxiety in the study group was moderate. Seniors were more likely to show positive vaccine attitudes, as confirmed by the percentage of respondents vaccinated against COVID-19 with at least one dose. However, there is still a percentage of unvaccinated individuals in the population of seniors; therefore, measures should be taken to motivate this age group and encourage preventive vaccination against COVID-19. Furthermore, representative studies on COVID-19 anxiety and attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine among Polish seniors are needed to determine a more precise prevalence of these phenomena and potential correlations on a national level.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; anxiety; attitudes; fear; older adults; vaccine hesitancy; vaccines.