Investigation of the level of vaccine opposition according to occupational groups in workers of a university hospital

Objective: In this presented study, we aimed to examine the levels of vaccine opposition among workers of a university hospital according to occupational groups and contribute to the data in the literature and thus to help develop new strategies to increase the vaccination rate of healthcare workers. Method: In this descriptive and cross-sectional study, a three-part questionnaire consisting of "Sociodemographic Data, Vaccine Opposition Scale and Questions to Measure Vaccine ATTitudes" was administered to the participants who agreed to participate in the study by face-to-face interview technique. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 18 © Copyright SPSS Inc. 1989, 2010 software. The statistical significance level was accepted as 0.05. Results: Of the 400 participants, 71.2% were female, 54.5% were married, 85% had a university degree or higher, 47.2% were between the ages of 18-29, and 46.5% had 5 or less years of experience. Of the participants, 47.5% were physicians, 26.8% were nurses/midwives/midwives/ATT/paramedics, 10% were caregivers/cleaning personnel, and 15.8% were non-patient care professionals. The anti-vaccination scale score was calculated as 28 (24-35) in the physician group, 42 (34-50) in the nurse/midwife/ATT/paramedic group, 56 (42-67) in the patient caregiver/cleaning personnel group, and 50 (40-63) in the non-patient care occupational group, and the physician group scored significantly lower than all other groups. In our study, the rate of participants who identified themselves as anti-vaccine was 2% (n=8), 5.5% (n=22) were undecided, and 2% (n=8) did not want to answer. Among those who identified themselves as anti-vaccine, 62.5% were from patient care/cleaning staff and 37.5% were from other occupational groups other than patient care. No one in the physician and nurse/midwife/ATT/paramedic groups identified themselves as anti-vaccine. The rate of vaccination in adulthood was 96.5%. The most common adult vaccines were COVID-19 (88.3%), Tetanus-Diphtheria (67.1%), Influenza (flu) (43.8%) and Hepatitis B (43.8%). Conclusions and Recommendations: In this study, it was noteworthy that all of those who identified themselves as anti-vaccine were from patient care/cleaning staff and other non-patient care occupational groups. This suggests that other personnel who have not received medical education but work in health institutions do not have sufficient knowledge about vaccination. In order for the fight against anti-vaccination to be more effective and successfully, it may be useful to plan trainings, make necessary legal arrangements, and increase health literacy. It is recommended to determine the changes that may occur in vaccination rates as the effect of the pandemic decreases with current studies. Keywords: Vaccine, anti-vaccination, vaccine opposition, vaccine hesitancy, health worker.