The Effect of Having COVID-19 on Anti-Vaccination: Observational Prospective Study

Abstract

Objective: In this study, the effect of having had coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) disease on anti-vaccination was investigated. Material and Methods: The study was conducted between February 2022-August 2022 in the COVID chest diseases clinic in our hospital. The cases who were COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and not vaccinated against COVID-19 hospitalized in our clinic were included in the study. The level of anti-vaccination of the cases was measured with the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS). In addition, demographic informations such as age, gender, educational status, marital status, number of people living in the household, average monthly income, smoking history, and additional chronic diseases were recorded. Routine radiological and laboratory examinations, follow-up times in the clinic, and treatment results were recorded for cases like all patients hospitalized in our COVID chest diseases clinic. Results: 46 cases were included in the study. The mean age of the cases was 54.63+or-14.81 years, 24 (52.1%) were female. VHS was applied to all cases at the time of hospitalization. Since 6 cases were referred to the intensive care unit due to respiratory failure, the second VHS could not be applied to these cases, and these 6 cases were excluded from the study. A 2nd VHS was performed in the remaining 40 patients just before discharge. Each question score, A-B-C section score and total scale score were compared for the pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 cases. While the VHS total score before COVID-19 infection was 36.48+or-7.36, the post-COVID-19 total score was found to be 25.65+or-9.10, a statistically significant decrease was observed (p < 0.001). It was observed that the mean scores of A-B-C decreased statistically in all sections (p < 0.001). Conclusion: As a result of our study, we found that the degree of anti-vaccine resistance decreased after the patients who were against the COVID-19 vaccine had the disease. As a result of our study, we found that the degree of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy of patients decreased after they had the disease. We believe that conducting similar studies and sharing their results through mass media, can change the perspective of vaccine hesitancy individuals in society on this situation, especially during pandemic periods.