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.