Factors related with COVID-19 vaccination willingness among outpatients in China

ABSTRACT

Background

COVID-19 vaccination has been accepted widely. However, there are only a few reports on patients’ willingness to be vaccinated. This study investigated the willingness of Chinese outpatients to accept COVID-19 vaccination as well as influencing factors.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Jiangsu province, China in December 2020. Self-administered questionnaires, which were distributed to 625 outpatients among secondary hospitals, addressed demographic characteristics, sociological characteristics, and subjective reasons. There were 522 (83.5%) participants who gave completely valid responses. Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the risk factors for willingness of COVID-19 vaccination.

Results

71.5% of participants were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. “worried about contracting COVID-19” (49.6%) and “vaccines have just been introduced and need time to consider” (38.9%) were the main reasons for being willing and unwilling to receive COVID-19 vaccine, respectively. The logistic regression analysis showed that “vaccines are an effective way to prevent diseases” (OR = 5.07, 95%CI: 3.32–7.75), “the price you are willing to pay for non-free vaccines (yuan) (101–500 vs ≤100)″ (OR = 1.87, 95%CI: 1.16–3.02), “per capital monthly income(yuan) (>6000 vs ≤3000)”(OR = 2.13, 95%CI: 1.03–4.41), and “self- assessed health status (Good vs Bad)″ (OR = 1.71, 95%CI: 1.01–2.90) were the main risk factors for outpatients to be willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Conclusions

The willingness of Chinese outpatients to receive COVID-19 vaccine was not high. The government should do more to increase publicity of knowledge about COVID-19 vaccine thus increasing willingness to vaccinate, and provide free vaccine to eliminate the cost impact.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 vaccination willingness
• influencing factors
• cross-sectional study
• outpatient
• China

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the leaders, managers, and all participants in the project for the hospitals. This study was supported by Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (16YJC880098), Medical education project of Chinese Medical Association and Chinese Higher Education Association (2018B-N18055), Project of the 13th Five-Year Plan for Education Science of Jiangsu Province of China (C-c/2018/01/10), Project of Research on Education Informatization of Jiangsu Province of China (20172223), Top-quality project of social science application research in Jiangsu Province(20SYC-164).

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Ethical considerations

The study was accessed by ethics commission of the university and approved by the person responsible for the university. The participates were obtained after reading the informed consent and ensuring that they were voluntary in the study.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Science (BG) [(16YJC880098)]; Medical education project of Chinese Medical Association and Chinese Higher Education Association (Chinese Medical Association, 2018B-N18055). Top-quality project of social science application research in Jiangsu Province (Jiangsu Federation of Philosophy and Social Sciences, 20SYC-164), Project of Research on Education Informatization of Jiangsu Province of China (Office of Jiangsu Province Education Network Security and Informatization Leading Group, 20172223), Project of the 13th Five-Year Plan for Education Science of Jiangsu Province of China Office, Cc/2018/01/10).