Akbulut Sami, Boz Gulseda, Ozer Ali, Sahin Tevfik Tolga, Colak Cemil
Department of Surgery and Liver Transplant Institute, Inonu University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya 44280, Turkey.
Department of Public Health, Inonu University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya 44280, Turkey.
Vaccines (Basel). 2023 Mar 31;11(4):779. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11040779.
It is important to evaluate the attitude of society towards vaccines to understand the rates of acceptance and hesitance towards vaccination, which are essential components of public health and epidemiology. This study aimed to evaluate the perspective of the Turkish population on COVID-19 status, rate of vaccination, and also to evaluate the reasons for refusal to vaccinate, vaccine hesitancy, and related factors.
A total of 4539 participants were included in this population-based descriptive and cross-sectional study. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS-II) was used to obtain a representative sample and for this purpose Turkey was divided into 26 regions. Participants were randomly selected based on the demographic features and population ratios of the selected regions. The following parameters were evaluated: sociodemographic characteristics and perspectives on COVID-19 vaccines, Vaccine Hesitancy Scale Adapted to Pandemics (VHS-P), and Anti-Vaccine Scale-Long Form (AVS-LF) questions.
A total of 4539 participants, 2303 (50.7%) male and 2236 (49.3%) female, aged between 18 and 73 years, were included in this study. It was observed that 58.4% of the participants had hesitations towards COVID-19 vaccination, and 19.6% were hesitant about all childhood vaccinations. Those who did not have the COVID-19 vaccine, who did not think that the COVID-19 vaccine was protective, and who had hesitation to vaccinate against COVID-19 had significantly higher median scores on the VHS-P and AVS-LF scales, respectively (all < 0.01). Those who did not have their children vaccinated in childhood and who were hesitant about childhood vaccinations, had significantly higher median scores on the VHS-P and AVS-LF scales, respectively (all < 0.01).
Although the rate of vaccination for COVID-19 was 93.4% in the study, hesitation to vaccinate was 58.4%. The median score of the scales of those who were hesitant about childhood vaccinations was higher than individuals who did not have any hesitation. In general, the source of concerns about vaccines should be clearly seen, and precautions should be taken.
评估社会对疫苗的态度对于了解疫苗接种的接受率和犹豫率很重要，而这是公共卫生和流行病学的重要组成部分。本研究旨在评估土耳其民众对新冠疫情状况、疫苗接种率的看法，并评估拒绝接种疫苗的原因、疫苗犹豫情况及相关因素。
本基于人群的描述性横断面研究共纳入4539名参与者。采用统计区域单位命名法（NUTS-II）获取具有代表性的样本，为此土耳其被划分为26个地区。根据所选地区的人口特征和人口比例随机选择参与者。评估了以下参数：社会人口学特征和对新冠疫苗的看法、适应大流行的疫苗犹豫量表（VHS-P）以及抗疫苗量表长版（AVS-LF）问题。
本研究共纳入4539名参与者，年龄在18至73岁之间，其中男性2303名（50.7%），女性2236名（49.3%）。观察到58.4%的参与者对新冠疫苗接种存在犹豫，19.6%的参与者对所有儿童疫苗接种都持犹豫态度。未接种新冠疫苗、不认为新冠疫苗具有保护性以及对新冠疫苗接种有犹豫的参与者，在VHS-P和AVS-LF量表上的中位数得分分别显著更高（均<0.01）。童年时期未给孩子接种疫苗以及对儿童疫苗接种持犹豫态度的参与者，在VHS-P和AVS-LF量表上的中位数得分也分别显著更高（均<0.01）。
尽管本研究中新冠疫苗接种率为93.4%，但疫苗犹豫率为58.4%。对儿童疫苗接种持犹豫态度者的量表中位数得分高于没有任何犹豫的个体。总体而言，应清楚地看到对疫苗担忧的根源，并采取预防措施。
