Willingness to receive a booster dose of inactivated coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine in Taizhou, China

ABSTRACT

Purpose

This population-based study aimed to determine the willingness to receive a booster dose of vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Taizhou, China.

Methods

An online questionnaire investigation addressing participants’ willingness to receive a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was organized in Taizhou, China. Of the 2318 interviewees who received the invitation, 1576 finished a qualifying questionnaire, corresponding to a response rate of 68.0%.

Results

The majority of respondents (n = 1435 [91.1%]) were willing to accept a booster vaccination against COVID-19. History of allergic reaction to other vaccines (OR = 0.30), confidence in the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines (OR = 3.20), confidence in the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 2.25) and its variants (useful versus [vs.] useless, OR = 2.33), and vaccine recipients (OR = 3.09) remained significantly associated with willingness to accept a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines.

Conclusion

A moderate proportion of the participants who responded were willing to receive a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. These results are valuable for starting health education and interventions to accelerate vaccine uptake and improve public health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in China.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• willingness
• booster dose
• China

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants for their cooperation and support.

Author contributions

J.S. Zhu and T.H. Tung conceived the study. M.X. Zhang, J.S. Zhu and T.H. Tung designed the questionnaire. J.S. Zhu collected the data. M.X. Zhang was responsible for the coding of the analyses. T.H. Tung and M.X. Zhang analyzed and interpreted the data, and wrote the first draft of the paper. X.Q. Lin and Y. Chen searched, sorted and interpreted the relevant literature. All authors edited and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was exempted from informed consent and approved by the Ethics Committee of Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province (Approval number: K20210705) in China.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have received an honorarium for their review work. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no other relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.