3.1. Vaccine hesitancy
More than a half of the participants have already been vaccinated (56.2%; 956/1700). Accordingly, the overall prevalence of vaccine hesitancy was rather low, 2.2% (IC 95% 1.5% – 2.9%) of participants responded negatively about COVID-19 vaccination intention. When considering only those who haven’t received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 5.1% (IC 95% 3.5% – 6.7%) of the participants were resistant to COVID-19 vaccination. Moreover, there was a significant variation in the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy among certain population subgroups. (Figure 1) Higher proportions of vaccine hesitancy was observed among males (p < 0.001), those aged between 45 and 59 years (p < 0.001) and lower levels of self-reported QoL (p = 0.05). Other characteristics, such as levels of schooling, self-perceived health status, type of healthcare assistance, and personal history of past COVID-19 infection or among household familiars were not significantly associated with variations in vaccine hesitancy.
Those who responded resistant to COVID-19 vaccination were predominantly males (71.1%), within the age range of 30 and 59 years (79%). About three-fourths of them had professional training (73.7%), reported a very good to excellent self-perceived health status (76.3%) and had no personal history of previous infection by COVID-19 (78.9%) nor among household familiars (68.4%). Notably, when assessed for their reasons for vaccine hesitancy the responses were mainly due to uncertainties about the safety (57.9%) and efficacy (36.8%) of the vaccines, followed by concerns about how they were developed i.e., problem of timing and the adoption of a new development technology (28.9%), contraindications for health reasons (10.5%) and personal history of COVID-19 infection (7.9%). No significant differences for reasons for the vaccine hesitancy between population subgroups.