Background:Vaccination is one of the most effective and low-cost health measures to prevent COVID-19. Vaccine hesitancy is an obstacle to COVID-19 vaccination.
Objective:This study aims to inform the vaccine hesitancy and analyze related factors towards COVID-19 vaccination among elderly in Luzhou, so as to provide suggestions for increasing vaccines uptake.
Methods:A face-to-face questionnaire cross-sectional survey was conducted among the elderly people over 60 years old in Luzhou City in April 2021 by multi-stage sampling method.
Results: A total of 1047 valid questionnaires were received. 42.0%(440/1047)vaccine hesitancy was reported among elderly in total. Female (OR=1.282, 95%CI:1.003-1.649), live in the rural (OR=3.659, 95%CI:2.813-4.758), poor health (OR=2.318, 95%CI:1.473-3.649), individuals not having regular medical check-ups (OR=2.669, 95%CI:2.072-3.437) and no history of self-funded influenza vaccination ( OR=2.408, 95% CI:1.656-3.502) reported slightly higher vaccine hesitancy. Being in low-risk areas and no need to get vaccinated (OR=16.877, 95%CI:11.750-24.242), being considered that the current protective measures had been able to avoid infection (OR=5.539, 95%CI:3.596-8.532), being considered that the natural immunity get from the disease was better than getting COVID-19 vaccine (OR=5.297, 95%CI:3.666-7.653), being concerned about side effects (OR=5.155, 95%CI:3.655-7.270) and being concerned that the vaccine was ineffective (OR=10.244, 95%CI:6.831-15.362) had higher prevalence of vaccine hesitancy. Those who believing the COVID-19 vaccine was safe and reliable (OR=0.075, 95%CI:0.044-0.130), the vaccine was free (OR=0.466, 95%CI:0.312-0.697) and individuals with higher education (OR=0.189, 95%CI:0.126-0.284) were more willing to get vaccinated.
Conclusion: Confidence in vaccines and perceptions of benefits and risk are associated with vaccine hesitancy. It’s very important to strengthen vaccine health literacy education for older people and enhance vaccine confidence. Countries need to supervise the public opinions in social media, television broadcasting and other media, so as to ensure the correct orientation of public opinion. Open and transparent evidence-based information is also needed which can help improve the vaccination coverage rate of the public.