Why healthcare providers are not vaccinated? A qualitative study during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran

BMC Primary Care

Research

Ali Taghipour¹  Seyed Saeed Tabatabaee²  Fatemeh Akhtar³  Javad Javan-Noughabi⁴  Fatemeh Kokabisaghi⁴  Javad Moghri⁴ 

[1] Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;Department of Health Economics and Management Sciences, School of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;Department of Health Economics and Management Sciences, School of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;

关键词: Refusal;    Acceptability;    Willingness;    Healthcare provider;    COVID-19 vaccine;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12875-023-02166-7

 received in 2023-06-27, accepted in 2023-09-29,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundVaccination has been effective in controlling contagious diseases, especially among high-risk groups such as medical staff. Their unwillingness to be vaccinated might adversely affect individual and public health. This study aimed to explore the factors related to the refusal of COVID-19 vaccines among health service providers.MethodsA qualitative study was conducted on 28 healthcare providers in Mashhad, Northeast of Iran from March to June 2022. The method of data collection was face-to-face interviews. The purposive method was used for sampling. Data collection continued until the saturation was reached. To analyze the data, the content analysis method was applied, and Maxqda (version 10) software was used.ResultsBy analyzing interview transcripts, six themes and ten sub-themes were extracted. Factors that explained employees’ reluctance to be vaccinated against COVID-19 were the opinion of peers, lack of trust in vaccines, fear of vaccination, mistrust to the government and health authorities, low perceived risk of coronavirus disease, and the contradictions of traditional and modern medicine in their approach to controlling the disease.ConclusionsAmong healthcare workers, concerns about the side effects of vaccines were the most influential factors in refusing vaccination. Providing reliable information about vaccines and their safety is key to increasing the trust of health workers in vaccination and facilitating its acceptance.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

【 图 表 】

Fig. 2