[Willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the population aged 80 years and older in Colombia 2021].

OBJECTIVE

Colombia designed and adopted a vaccination plan against COVID-19 that will immunize 35 million people. The aim study was to know the willingness to accept the vaccination against COVID-19.

METHODS

A telephone survey of 11,721 people aged 80 and over, affiliated with a health insurer, was carried. The respondents were the affiliates or their relatives or caregivers.

RESULTS

The average age was 85.0 years (SD: 4.5), with no differences between sexes; 3,344 (28.5%) referred a previous diagnostic test for COVID-19 and 73 were positive for an incidence of 622.8 per 100,000 people (95%CI: 491-778). Regarding the attitude with the vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, 1/4 respondents refrained from giving an opinion or was neutral. When the respondent was a relative, the acceptance of the vaccine was 60.4% (95% CI: 59.5-61.3) with differences by gender: men 62.2% (95% CI: 60.8-63.6) and women of 59.2 (95% CI: 58.0-60.3),  < 0.05. When the respondent was the potential recipient of the vaccine, the acceptance of the vaccine was 61.7% (95% CI: 59.4-64.0) and also differed by gender: 70.2% in men (95% CI: 66, 9-73.5) and 55.1% in women (95% CI: 52.0-58.3),  < 0.05.

CONCLUSION

The relatively low acceptance of vaccination against COVID-19 in Colombia poses significant challenges to achieve herd immunity that allows control of the pandemic.