College of Natural and Health Sciences, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Institute of Management Technology, Dubai, UAE.
Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2022 Nov 30;18(5):2068930. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2022.2068930. Epub 2022 May 20.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the lives of people living across the world and the development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 is considered to be one of the most promising solutions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. In several countries, we are witnessing hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines, which is a complex phenomenon influenced by a variety of factors. A cross-sectional study was performed to comprehensively investigate the impact of factors like demography, COVID-19 pandemic-induced behavior, and vaccine attitude on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (VA) among communities of five different universities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). To investigate the effect of demography and COVID-19 pandemic-induced behavioral factors, Analysis of Variance was perfomed. The effect of COVID-19 vaccine attitudes on COVID-19 VA was examined through partial least squares-structural equations modeling. The results of the study showed no difference among the population in accepting COVID-19 vaccines due to their demographic factors. The effect of pandemic-induced behavioral factors on COVID-19 VA suggested that the people of UAE accepted COVID-19 vaccines irrespective of the movement and travel restrictions imposed due to the pandemic. The results on the effect of vaccine attitudes on COVID-19 VA showed that vaccine benefit attitudes, safety concerns, and trust in health-care professionals (TrHP) were found to be significant factors in VA. Furthermore, TrHP was found to reduce the negative effect of safety concerns related to COVID-19 VA. The findings broadly highlight that COVID-19 VA in the UAE was not hampered by demographic factors and the pandemic-induced behavioral constraints. The study also showed that people with co-morbidities had lower level of COVID-19 VA than people with no co-morbidities. To improve COVID-19 VA, the perceived benefits with COVID-19 vaccine and TrHP must be enhanced and simultaneously safety concerns of the vaccines need to be addressed.
新冠疫情影响了全球各地人们的生活，而开发针对 SARS-CoV-2 的疫苗被认为是遏制新冠疫情的最有希望的解决方案之一。在许多国家，我们看到了人们对接种新冠疫苗的犹豫，这是一个受到多种因素影响的复杂现象。本研究通过对阿联酋五所不同大学的社区人群进行横断面研究，综合调查了人口统计学因素、新冠疫情引发的行为因素和疫苗态度对新冠疫苗接种接受度（VA）的影响。为了研究人口统计学和新冠疫情引发的行为因素的影响，进行了方差分析。通过偏最小二乘-结构方程模型分析了新冠疫苗态度对新冠 VA 的影响。研究结果表明，由于人口统计学因素，阿联酋人群在接受新冠疫苗方面没有差异。新冠疫情引发的行为因素对新冠 VA 的影响表明，阿联酋人民接受新冠疫苗，而不受因疫情而实施的流动和旅行限制的影响。关于疫苗态度对新冠 VA 的影响的结果表明，疫苗效益态度、安全性担忧以及对医疗保健专业人员的信任（TrHP）被认为是 VA 的重要因素。此外，TrHP 被发现可降低与新冠 VA 相关的安全性担忧的负面影响。研究结果广泛表明，阿联酋的新冠 VA 不受人口统计学因素和疫情引发的行为限制的阻碍。研究还表明，患有合并症的人群比没有合并症的人群对新冠疫苗的 VA 较低。为了提高新冠 VA，必须增强人们对新冠疫苗的感知效益和 TrHP，同时需要解决疫苗的安全性问题。
