Alhasan Khalid, Aljamaan Fadi, Temsah Mohamad-Hani, Alshahrani Fatimah, Bassrawi Rolan, Alhaboob Ali, Assiri Rasha, Alenezi Shuliweeh, Alaraj Ali, Alhomoudi Reham I, Batais Mohammed A, Al-Eyadhy Lama, Halwani Rabih, AbdulMajeed Naif, Al-Jedai Ahmed, Senjab Abdulrahman, Memish Ziad A, Al-Subaie Sarah, Barry Mazin, Al-Tawfiq Jaffar A
Pediatric Department, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
Pediatric Department, King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia.
Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Nov 17;9(11):1566. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9111566.
As the COVID-19 Delta variant has spread across the globe, healthcare workers' (HCWs) knowledge, worries, and vaccine booster acceptance should be assessed. Online questionnaires aimed at HCWs in Saudi Arabia were distributed between 9 and 12 August 2021, aiming to evaluate HCWs' perceptions and worries about the Delta variant as well as their feelings about receiving a booster-vaccine. A total of 1279 HCWs participated, with 51.1% being physicians and 41.7% nurses. 92.5% were aware of the emergence of the Delta variant. Still, only 28.7% were found to have sufficient knowledge of the variant, and their level of worry about it was higher than their level of worry about the Alpha variant (2.32/5 versus 1.79/5). The main information sources cited by the participants were social media (50.5%), while 30.5% used scientific journals. Overall, 55.3% were willing to receive a vaccine booster, while one third would have preferred to receive a new mRNA vaccine specifically developed for the Delta variant. Factors associated with vaccine booster acceptance were receiving both vaccination doses ( = 0.008), believing that the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine is effective against variants ( < 0.001), and agreement that mixing/matching vaccines is effective against variants ( < 0.001). A high percentage of HCWs were aware of the Delta variant, but only a small fraction had decent quality of knowledge about it. The participants exhibited high worry levels and showed a modest acceptance of receiving a vaccine booster dose. These results should encourage public health officials to scale up educational efforts to disseminate reliable information about the different variants and provide recommendations about receiving a vaccine booster. Further research on methods to alleviate HCWs' worries about emerging variants is warranted.
随着新冠病毒德尔塔变异株在全球传播，医护人员的知识水平、担忧程度以及对疫苗加强针的接受度都应得到评估。2021年8月9日至12日，针对沙特阿拉伯医护人员发放了在线调查问卷，旨在评估医护人员对德尔塔变异株的认知和担忧，以及他们对接种疫苗加强针的看法。共有1279名医护人员参与，其中51.1%为医生，41.7%为护士。92.5%的人知晓德尔塔变异株的出现。然而，仅有28.7%的人被发现对该变异株有足够的了解，且他们对其的担忧程度高于对阿尔法变异株的担忧程度（2.32/5对比1.79/5）。参与者提及的主要信息来源是社交媒体（50.5%），而30.5%的人使用科学期刊。总体而言，55.3%的人愿意接种疫苗加强针，而三分之一的人更倾向于接种专门为德尔塔变异株研发的新型信使核糖核酸疫苗。与接受疫苗加强针相关的因素包括接种了两剂疫苗（ = 0.008）、认为辉瑞 - 生物科技公司的BNT162b2疫苗对变异株有效（ < 0.001），以及认同混合/搭配疫苗对变异株有效（ < 0.001）。高比例的医护人员知晓德尔塔变异株，但只有一小部分人对其有良好的了解质量。参与者表现出较高的担忧程度，且对接受疫苗加强针的接受度一般。这些结果应促使公共卫生官员加大教育力度，传播关于不同变异株的可靠信息，并提供关于接种疫苗加强针的建议。有必要进一步研究减轻医护人员对新出现变异株担忧的方法。
