Acceptance of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and the associated factors among dental health care professionals: A cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND

One of the greatest inventions of the 21st century is the development of vaccines against the life-threatening pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Whenever a new medication or treatment modality is introduced globally, it is accompanied by anxiety in the general public and among health care professionals.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study was to explore factors that may influence the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among dental health care professionals, as they are the first subgroup in the population to receive the vaccine.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A survey-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 164 health care professionals (general dentists, dental specialists with 2 years of experience after graduation and dental assistants). Data was collected by sending a URL link to the hardand soft-copy questionnaire on Google Forms through all social media platforms. The questionnaire had 2 sections - the 1st part concerned the demographic details and the 2nd part was designed to assess the acceptance of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among dental health care professionals and the related factors. The normality of the data was assessed with the Shapiro-Wilk test. The Cox regression algorithm was applied to evaluate the factors associated with the acceptance of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.

RESULTS

Out of 164 participants, 85.37% showed a positive attitude toward vaccination and only 7.32% of dental health care professionals were not willing to get vaccinated; out of them, 5 were males and 7 were females. Those who refused to get vaccinated included 3.6% of general dentists, 21.1% of dental specialists and 11.7% of dental assistants. The complications of major concern were fever, myalgia and the lethargic condition immediately after vaccination.

CONCLUSIONS

A small percentage of health care professionals declined to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the main reason was uncertainty about the associated side effects. The respondents were mostly concerned about such side effects as fever, myalgia and the lethargic condition immediately after vaccination.