THE COVID-19 VACCINATION ACCEPTANCE/HESITANCY RATE AND ITS DETERMINANTS AMONG HEALTHCARE WORKERS OF 91 COUNTRIES: A MULTICENTER CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

The aim of this study was to investigate the COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rate and its determinants among healthcare workers in a multicenter study. This was a cross-sectional multi-center survey conducted from February 5 to April 29, 2021. The questionnaire consisted of 26 items in 6 subscales. The English version of the question-naire was translated into seven languages and distributed through Google Forms using snowball sampling; a col-league in each country was responsible for the forward and backward translation, and also the distribution of the questionnaire. A forward stepwise logistic regression was utilized to explore the variables and questionnaire fac-tors tied to the intention to COVID-19 vaccination. 4630 participants from 91 countries completed the question-naire. According to the United Nations Development Program 2020, 43.6 % of participants were from low Human Development Index (HDI) regions, 48.3 % high and very high, and 8.1 % from medium. The overall vaccination hesitancy rate was 37 %. Three out of six factors of the questionnaire were significantly related to intention to the vaccination. While ‘Perceived benefits of the COVID-19 vaccination’ (OR: 3.82, p-value<0.001) and ‘Prosocial norms’ (OR: 5.18, p-value<0.001) were associated with vaccination acceptance, ‘The vaccine safety/cost con-cerns’ with OR: 3.52, p-value<0.001 was tied to vaccination hesitancy. Medical doctors and pharmacists were more willing to take the vaccine in comparison to others. Importantly, HDI with OR: 12.28, 95 % CI: 6.10-24.72 was a strong positive determinant of COVID-19 vaccination acceptance. This study highlighted the vaccination hesitancy rate of 37 % in our sample among HCWs. Increasing awareness regarding vaccination benefits, con-fronting the misinformation, and strengthening the prosocial norms would be the primary domains for maximizing the vaccination coverage. The study also showed that the HDI is strongly associated with the vaccination ac-ceptance/hesitancy, in a way that those living in low HDI contexts are more hesitant to receive the vaccine.