Assessment of knowledge attitude and acceptance of health care workers and visitors regarding COVID 19 Vaccines.

Abstract

Background: Vaccinations against COVID-19 are essential for preventing infections and managing the pandemic, however, there may be hesitancy and negative perceptions towards vaccination, which may reduce the willingness to be vaccinated. This cross-sectional study investigated the knowledge, attitudes, acceptance of health care workers and visitors regarding COVID-19 vaccines. Objectives: this study aimed to compare knowledge of healthcare workers and visitors regarding COVID-19 vaccines, to determine their attitudes and to identify factors affecting acceptance toward COVID-19 vaccines. methodology: This was a comparative cross-sectional study conducted on 110 comprising 55 health care workers and 55 Visitors of dermatology and ophthalmology departments of zagazig university hospitals from November2022 to November 2023. A survey was used to collect the questionnaire, which was subsequently analyzed using SPSS 25 statistical software. The statistical test of chi-square was employed for analysis. Results: (70.9%) of health care workers group and (61.8%) of visitors group were females in comparison to (29.1%) and (38.2%) were male among health care workers and visitors groups respectively. there was a highly statistically significant difference between groups as (63.6%) of health care workers group had postgraduate higher education in comparison to only (5.5%) among visitors group. Although healthcare workers were more knowledgeable, positive attitudes, and more acceptance regarding COVID-19 vaccines than visitors, there was no significant difference between them. Conclusion: The current study was able to provide a thorough review of Egyptian understanding, attitudes, and practices regarding COVID-19. Healthcare workers have more knowledge, positive attitudes, and more acceptance than visitors regarding COVID-19 vaccines.