The willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine and affecting factors among healthcare professionals: A cross-sectional study in Turkey.

Introduction: While discussions on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines continue, healthcare professionals' attitudes and their growing fear and anxiety during the pandemic process are not yet fully known. In this study, we aimed to investigate the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and affecting factors in healthcare professionals.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 1574 healthcare professionals consisting of physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and healthcare personnel in Turkey in December 2020. Demographic, attitudinal, and Fear of COVID-19 Scale scores of healthcare professionals were investigated in this survey.

Results: About 84.6% of healthcare professionals declared willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine whenever possible. Most physicians (90.4%) stated to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, while 66.5% of nurses, 73.9% of healthcare personnel, also preferred to have it as soon as the vaccine was available. Factors affecting the willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine were found to be advanced age, male gender, working in a primary health care center, living with family, having a child, having a chronic disease, having high Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FC-19S) scores. While the group with the highest vaccine rejection rate was nurses with 33.5%, FC-19S scores were significantly higher in nurses who wanted to be vaccinated. In multivariate regression analyses, factors related to the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine were identified as advanced age, routine adult vaccination, no history of COVID-19, and recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Conclusion: A high proportion of healthcare professionals declared their willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine, and hence, this will play a leading role in optimizing the vaccination rate of the entire population while combating the pandemic.