Attitudes and Practices Related to COVID-19 Vaccination with the Second Booster Dose among Members of Athens Medical Association: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study
Background: There are limited data on the attitudes and acceptance of the second booster (fourth dose) of the COVID-19 vaccination among physicians. Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, online study was conducted among members of the Athens Medical Association (A.M.A.) who were invited t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Vaccines |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/9/1480 |
| _version_ | 1797576501443428352 |
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| author | Georgios Zoumpoulis Paraskevi Deligiorgi Dimitrios Lamprinos Panagiotis Georgakopoulos Evangelos Oikonomou Gerasimos Siasos Georgios Rachiotis Christos Damaskos Dimitrios Papagiannis Kostas A. Papavassiliou George Patoulis Fotios Patsourakos Vasiliki Benetou Elena Riza Philippos Orfanos Pagona Lagiou Georgios Marinos |
| author_facet | Georgios Zoumpoulis Paraskevi Deligiorgi Dimitrios Lamprinos Panagiotis Georgakopoulos Evangelos Oikonomou Gerasimos Siasos Georgios Rachiotis Christos Damaskos Dimitrios Papagiannis Kostas A. Papavassiliou George Patoulis Fotios Patsourakos Vasiliki Benetou Elena Riza Philippos Orfanos Pagona Lagiou Georgios Marinos |
| author_sort | Georgios Zoumpoulis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: There are limited data on the attitudes and acceptance of the second booster (fourth dose) of the COVID-19 vaccination among physicians. Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, online study was conducted among members of the Athens Medical Association (A.M.A.) who were invited to participate anonymously over the period from January to March 2023. Results: From the 1224 members who participated in the survey, 53.9% did not receive the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The main reasons for no vaccination were the lack of obligation to receive the fourth dose, the history of three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and the lack of sufficient information about the effectiveness of the fourth dose. Over half of the three-dose-vaccinated participants were willing to receive the fourth dose in the near future. Interestingly, the vaccination coverage among participants who had been informed about the fourth dose through scientific sources was low. Conclusions: The low vaccination coverage with the fourth dose reported in this study can lead to broad and serious consequences, such as increase in COVID-19 infections, reduction of available healthcare staff and increased caseloads of COVID-19 in hospitals. Furthermore, hesitant physicians will adversely influence the vaccination uptake among the general population due to their key role in informing and recommending the vaccine. The healthcare system administration should acknowledge and address physician’s concerns through effective communication and better support. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:52:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b8a69970a0614ab3b80104cc724dc0ca |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-393X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:52:51Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Vaccines |
| spelling | doaj.art-b8a69970a0614ab3b80104cc724dc0ca2023-11-19T13:19:33ZengMDPI AGVaccines2076-393X2023-09-01119148010.3390/vaccines11091480Attitudes and Practices Related to COVID-19 Vaccination with the Second Booster Dose among Members of Athens Medical Association: Results from a Cross-Sectional StudyGeorgios Zoumpoulis0Paraskevi Deligiorgi1Dimitrios Lamprinos2Panagiotis Georgakopoulos3Evangelos Oikonomou4Gerasimos Siasos5Georgios Rachiotis6Christos Damaskos7Dimitrios Papagiannis8Kostas A. Papavassiliou9George Patoulis10Fotios Patsourakos11Vasiliki Benetou12Elena Riza13Philippos Orfanos14Pagona Lagiou15Georgios Marinos16Emergency Care Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, GreeceEmergency Care Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, GreeceEmergency Care Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, GreeceEmergency Care Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, GreeceFirst Department of Cardiology, Hippokration General Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, GreeceFirst Department of Cardiology, Hippokration General Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, GreeceDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, GreeceRenal Transplantation Unit, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, GreecePublic Health & Vaccines Laboratory, Department of Nursing, School of Health Science, University of Thessaly, 38221 Volos, GreeceFirst Department of Respiratory Medicine, “Sotiria” Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, GreeceAthens’s Medical Association, 11527 Athens, GreeceAthens’s Medical Association, 11527 Athens, GreeceDepartment of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, GreeceDepartment of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, GreeceDepartment of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, GreeceDepartment of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, GreeceDepartment of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, GreeceBackground: There are limited data on the attitudes and acceptance of the second booster (fourth dose) of the COVID-19 vaccination among physicians. Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, online study was conducted among members of the Athens Medical Association (A.M.A.) who were invited to participate anonymously over the period from January to March 2023. Results: From the 1224 members who participated in the survey, 53.9% did not receive the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The main reasons for no vaccination were the lack of obligation to receive the fourth dose, the history of three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and the lack of sufficient information about the effectiveness of the fourth dose. Over half of the three-dose-vaccinated participants were willing to receive the fourth dose in the near future. Interestingly, the vaccination coverage among participants who had been informed about the fourth dose through scientific sources was low. Conclusions: The low vaccination coverage with the fourth dose reported in this study can lead to broad and serious consequences, such as increase in COVID-19 infections, reduction of available healthcare staff and increased caseloads of COVID-19 in hospitals. Furthermore, hesitant physicians will adversely influence the vaccination uptake among the general population due to their key role in informing and recommending the vaccine. The healthcare system administration should acknowledge and address physician’s concerns through effective communication and better support.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/9/1480COVID-19vaccinephysiciansvaccine hesitancybooster vaccine |
| spellingShingle | Georgios Zoumpoulis Paraskevi Deligiorgi Dimitrios Lamprinos Panagiotis Georgakopoulos Evangelos Oikonomou Gerasimos Siasos Georgios Rachiotis Christos Damaskos Dimitrios Papagiannis Kostas A. Papavassiliou George Patoulis Fotios Patsourakos Vasiliki Benetou Elena Riza Philippos Orfanos Pagona Lagiou Georgios Marinos Attitudes and Practices Related to COVID-19 Vaccination with the Second Booster Dose among Members of Athens Medical Association: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study Vaccines COVID-19 vaccine physicians vaccine hesitancy booster vaccine |
| title | Attitudes and Practices Related to COVID-19 Vaccination with the Second Booster Dose among Members of Athens Medical Association: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_full | Attitudes and Practices Related to COVID-19 Vaccination with the Second Booster Dose among Members of Athens Medical Association: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_fullStr | Attitudes and Practices Related to COVID-19 Vaccination with the Second Booster Dose among Members of Athens Medical Association: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Attitudes and Practices Related to COVID-19 Vaccination with the Second Booster Dose among Members of Athens Medical Association: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_short | Attitudes and Practices Related to COVID-19 Vaccination with the Second Booster Dose among Members of Athens Medical Association: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_sort | attitudes and practices related to covid 19 vaccination with the second booster dose among members of athens medical association results from a cross sectional study |
| topic | COVID-19 vaccine physicians vaccine hesitancy booster vaccine |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/9/1480 |
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