Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance amongst doctors practising in Cross River State, Nigeria

Background: COVID-19 vaccine is one of the most effective public health intervention approaches for prevention of COVID-19. Despite its well-known  efficacy and safety, significant proportion of frontline COVID-19 healthcare workers remain hesitant about accepting the vaccine for whatever reasons.  This study aimed to determine acceptance rate and determinants of vaccine refusal among doctors in Cross River State, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional survey of doctors using structured online questionnaire administered via the WhatsApp platform of the medical  doctors’ association, in order to assess their rate of acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines, and reasons for vaccine refusal. The predictors of vaccine  acceptance were analysed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results: Of the 443 medical doctors targeted on the WhatsApp platform, 164 responded to the questionnaire survey, giving a response rate of 37.0%  (164/443). The mean age of the respondents is 38 ±6.28 years, 91 (55.5%) are 38 years old and above, 97 (59.1%) are males and 67 (40.9%) are females,  giving a male-to-female ratio of 1.4:1. The greater proportion of the respondents are physicians (70/148, 47.3%) and about three-quarter of the  participants (127/164, 77.4%) had received COVID-19 vaccine. The proportion of physicians who had received COVID-19 vaccine (57/70, 81.4%) was more  than the proportion of general practitioners (31/42, 73.8%) and surgeons (24/35, 68.6%). Low perceived benefit of vaccination was the main reason given  for COVID-19 vaccine refusal (45.9%, 17/37). No significant association was found between vaccine refusal and suspected predictors (p>0.05). Conclusion: Our study revealed high rate of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among medical doctors especially among the physicians, with the surgeons  showing lowest acceptance rate. A significant proportion would not take vaccine because they perceived it lacks much benefits. To raise vaccine  acceptance among doctors, more efforts on vaccine literacy that would target doctors from all sub-specialties especially surgeons and incorporate  vaccine benefits should be made.