Willingness to vaccinate among adults, and factors associated with vaccine acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in a nationwide study in Poland between March 2021 and April 2022

Eftychia Kotronia; Magdalena Rosinska; Malgorzata Stepien; Michal Czerwinski; Malgorzata Sadkowska-Todys

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1235585

Willingness to vaccinate among adults, and factors associated with vaccine acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in a nationwide study in Poland between March 2021 and April 2022

Front Public Health. 2023 Dec 4:11:1235585. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1235585. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Eftychia Kotronia^{1

2}, Magdalena Rosinska^{1

3}, Malgorzata Stepien¹, Michal Czerwinski¹, Malgorzata Sadkowska-Todys¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases and Surveillance, National Institute of Public Health - National Institute of Hygiene - National Research Institute, Warsaw, Poland.
² ECDC Fellowship Programme, Field Epidemiology Path (EPIET), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland.

Abstract

Introduction: Despite the availability, safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, Poland remains one of the six countries of the European Union with the lowest cumulative uptake of the vaccine's primary course in the general population. This study examined willingness to vaccinate and the associated factors in samples of unvaccinated and vaccinated adults between March 2021 and April 2022.

Methods: Data were collected using OBSER-CO, a nationwide, repeated cross-sectional study, conducted at four different time points (rounds). Data on willingness to vaccinate among the unvaccinated (at all rounds) and willingness to receive another dose in the vaccinated (at 2 rounds-after booster introduction), reasons for reluctance, sociodemographic, health, and behavioral factors were collected using a uniform questionnaire via computer-assisted telephone interviewing. In each round, more than 20,000 respondents were interviewed. To assess associations between factors and willingness to vaccinate, separate multivariable logistic regression models were fitted for each factor at each round and adjusted for confounders.

Results: Between rounds 1 and 4 (March 2021-April 2022), in the unvaccinated, willingness to vaccinate declined from 73 to 12%, whereas in the vaccinated, willingness to receive another dose declined from 90 to 53%. The highest magnitude of decline between subsequent rounds occurred during the Omicron wave. Overall, concerns about side effects, effectiveness, and vaccine adverse effects were common but decreased over time. Age, gender, employment, place of residence, COVID-19 diagnosis or exposure, hospitalization, and participation in social activities were among the factors associated with willingness. However, associations changed over rounds highlighting the influence of different pandemic waves and variants.

Conclusion: We observed a declining and multifactorial willingness to vaccinate in Poland, with vaccine attitudes dynamically changing across subsequent rounds. To address vaccine concerns, sustained health communication about COVID-19 vaccines is essential, especially after the emergence of new variants.

Keywords: COVID-19 waves; Delta variant; Omicron variant; SARS-CoV-2; attitudes; booster; vaccination campaign; vaccine hesitancy.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19 Testing
COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Poland
Vaccination
Vaccines*

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines
Vaccines

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded by the Medical Research Agency in Poland (grant 2020/ABM/COVID19/PZH). The work was carried out as part of task no. BE-1/2023. The funder had no role in the design, execution, and publication of the study.