Acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study using a web-based survey

ABSTRACT

The success of COVID-19 vaccination depends on individual’s vaccine acceptance. There has been misinformation on the media that doubts its effectiveness, safety, and long-term risk. Such controversy could affect the acceptance toward the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. The objective of this study was to assess the factors influencing the acceptance and hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted. An online survey was conducted with four parameters: Demographics, medical history, knowledge and information sources about COVID-19 and vaccine, and hesitancy/acceptance of vaccinations. Bivariate analysis between several survey items and the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine was conducted using Chi-square test. Logistic regression was used to assess to what degree each variable affects the acceptance and the hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately 64% show a desire to accept the vaccine while 18.3% were extremely hesitant to take the vaccine. Non-demographic factors that were associated with the acceptance toward the COVID-19 vaccine were the source of health information about COVID-19 (OR:1.63; 95% CI:1.07–2.47), perception toward whether the vaccine is effective on other variants of the virus (OR:7.24; 95% CI:4.58–11.45), previous uptake of the influenza vaccine (OR:1.62; 95% CI:1.07–2.47), and potential mandatory of vaccination in order to travel internationally (OR:16.52; 95% CI:10.23–26.68). This study provides an insight into factors – other than the sociodemographic – influencing the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine in Saudi Arabia. The government should address the COVID-19-related misinformation and rumors to increase acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• vaccine
• acceptance
• hesitancy
• questionnaire
• Saudi Arabia

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere gratitude and thank all the participants in this study. We also would like to thank our colleagues from multiple institutes across the country for their help in distributing the survey.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee at King Khalid University with approval number: [(ECM#2020-197)—(HAPO-06-B-001)]. Informed consent was obtained from all the participants. They were assured that their participation is voluntary, and all responses would be anonymous and confidential. In addition, the participants’ answers would be used for scientific research only.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no external funding.