Socio-Demographics Correlate of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy During the Second Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Web-Based Survey in Saudi Arabia

  1. Mohammed AL-Mohaithef
  2. Bijaya Kumar Padhi
  3. Soukaina Ennaceur

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Abstract

Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is considered a major global public health threat affecting across the life course and socioeconomic aspects of life. Global acceptance to an effective vaccine is the most anticipated resolution. This study aims to evaluate intent to be vaccinated among public in Saudi Arabia during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional web-based study was designed in Saudi Arabia. Study participants ( N = 658) were recruited through snowball sampling. The SurveyMonkey platform was used to record the response. Cross-tabulation was performed by participants' intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 virus with sociodemographic characteristics and respondents' risk perception toward COVID-19, trust in the healthcare system, and their history of vaccine hesitancy behavior. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to compute the predictors of vaccination intention among the study participants.

Results: Six hundred fifty-eight participants completed the survey (females = 47.4%). Of the 658 participants, 351 (53.3%) have shown intent to be vaccinated. Five hundred nineteen (78.8%) of the participants were reported to be at high risk of COVID-19, and 307 (46.6%) were reported to trust the healthcare system in the country. The multivariable analysis shows respondents with a high-risk perception (OR: 2.27, 95% CI: 1.49–3.48); higher trust in the healthcare system (OR: 3.24, 95% CI: 2.32–4.61) was found to be the significant factor affecting the decision in acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine in Saudi Arabia.

Conclusion: Participants reported high knowledge toward COVID-19 virus, and vaccine developments. About half (46.6%) of the study participants reported refusal/hesitancy toward the vaccine during the second wave of the pandemic in Saudi Arabia. The study highlighted that higher risk perception and higher trust in the healthcare system were found to be the main reasons for participants' intentions behind the vaccination.

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  1. Version published to 10.3389/fpubh.2021.698106
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.20.21255781: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Informed consent was obtained from all participants (18 years or older and currently living in the KSA).
    IRB: Ethical Considerations: Ethical approval was granted for the study by the institutional Research Ethics Committee (SEUREC-CHS20110) Saudi Electronic University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and consent was taken before participation in the study.
    Sex as a biological variableGender was reported in two categories: male and female.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power AnalysisThe sample size was estimated to be 637.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    STATA 15.0 software (StataCorp LP, Texas, USA) was used for all statistical analysis.
    STATA
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)
    StataCorp
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    The limitation of this study includes sampling strategy, we used a snowball sampling which may have been overestimated due to selection bias. Secondly, we did not account some psychological factors which may influence the acceptance of vaccination. Despite these limitations, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report the current COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in the country while there is a vaccine is available and the second wave of pandemic devastating the community.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.04.20.21255781v1 on medRxiv