Exploring vaccine hesitancy among healthcare providers in the United Arab Emirates: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Healthcare providers (HCPs) are at the frontline to curb the spread of vaccine hesitancy in the community. However, HCPs themselves may delay or refuse vaccines. In light of the emerging vaccine hesitancy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), we aimed to explore HCPs doubts and concerns regarding vaccination. We conducted face-to-face interviews with 33 HCPs from 7 ambulatory healthcare services in the Al Ain region, UAE. An interview guide was developed based on the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control guide for vaccine hesitancy among HCPs. An inductive thematic framework was employed to explore the main and emerging themes conceptualizing the predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors that influence HCPs’ hesitancy regarding vaccinations for themselves and while recommending, prescribing, or discussing vaccines with their patients. The sample included general practitioners, family physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other administrative staff. The major themes included positive predisposing factors such as trust in the system and the government, previous education, and social responsibility. Positive enabling factors included affordability and availability of vaccination services. Many participants were hesitant to receive the mandatory influenza vaccination. Misinformation regarding vaccines on social media was a major concern. However, HCPs showed little interest in being active on social media. Most participants reported never receiving any training on how to address vaccine hesitancy among patients. Because HCPs play an important role in influencing patients’ decisions regarding undergoing vaccination, their confidence in addressing vaccine hesitancy must be improved.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthcare workers
• vaccine hesitancy
• United Arab Emirates
• social media
• influenza vaccine

Acknowledgments

We thank the participating healthcare providers at the ambulatory healthcare service clinics for their support of this study.

Authors’ contributions

IE: participated in the study design, performed the data collection and analysis, and drafted the manuscript. SAH, SA, and RA: participated in the acquisition of data. ED: critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. ARA: conceptualized and designed the study, coordinated data collection and analysis, and drafted the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the United Arab Emirates University under Grant [number 1132]. The funding source did not participate in the study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the data, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.