Objective: To assess COVID-19 vaccination status among individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design: A cross-sectional study.
Setting: Twelve hospitals from all regions of Thailand.
Participants: One hundred and eighty people with SCI were randomly selected from the Thai SCI registry database.
Intervention: Not applicable.
Outcome measures: The primary outcome, which was the COVID-19 vaccination status, and the secondary outcomes, which were the number of vaccination doses, satisfaction and dissatisfaction aspects, and barriers to vaccination, were recorded using a specifically developed questionnaire over the telephone during February to March 2022. Data were analyzed using descriptive analyses, bivariate, and multivariable analyses.
Results: Of the 96 people with SCI who were able to respond, the prevalence of receiving at least one dose was 77% but the prevalence of receiving a booster dose was 20%. Being non-traumatic SCI correlated negatively with having received any vaccination doses when compared to traumatic SCI. Most of the participants were satisfied with the government provision of COVID-19 vaccines. The major barriers to vaccination were problems related to a negative attitude toward the vaccination, followed by transportation difficulties and wheelchair-inaccessible vaccination sites.
Conclusions: Seventy-seven percent of people with SCI participating in this study received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, whereas only 20% of them received a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccination. To increase the prevalence of vaccination, healthcare providers should deliver the fact regarding COVID-19 vaccination to reduce negative attitudes, as well as remove physical barriers to vaccination places for people with SCI.
Keywords: Barriers to vaccination; COVID-19 vaccine; Spinal cord injury; Vaccination rate.