Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in French hospitals

•Almost 50% of hospital workers were COVID-19 vaccine hesitant.•Women, non-medical, younger, and private sector workers showed greater hesitancy.•Specific concerns were observed according to the socio-professional status.•Tailored oral and written information is needed to improve vaccination coverage.•The majority of hospital workers were against mandatory vaccination. COVID-19 vaccines have become the new hope for stemming the pandemic. We aimed to assess pre-launch vaccine acceptance among hospital workers in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Administrative Region of France. We performed a cross sectional study involving all hospital workers in 11 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes hospitals in December 2020. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with vaccine hesitancy. We analyzed completed questionnaires from 1,964 respondents (78% women, mean age 42 years, 21.5% physicians, 41% private care centers). A total of 1,048 (53%) hospital workers were in favor of COVID-19 vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy was associated with: female gender; young age; paramedical, technical, and administrative professions (i.e., all non-medical professions); no prior flu vaccination; and employment in the private medical care sector (p