Hou Zhiyuan's team assesses global COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and vaccination rates: a systematic review and meta-analysis

On September 12, 2022, Communications Medicine, a new subsidiary of Nature, published online the research results of Associate Professor Hou Zhiyuan's research group of the School of Public Health of Fudan University, "Mapping global acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccination: A systematic review and meta-analysis"
。 The study shows that global acceptance of new crown vaccines still needs to be improved, and there are large differences
in new crown vaccine acceptance between different populations, different countries, different times and different demographic characteristics.
The need for continuous monitoring of COVID vaccine acceptance, especially for countries and populations with low acceptance, was emphasized, to provide a basis for
increasing vaccination rates.

The COVID-19 pandemic has become the most threatening global health problem, and vaccination is the most cost-effective means of
preventing and controlling the epidemic.
In order to achieve high vaccination rates and herd immunity, public confidence and acceptance of the vaccine need to be ensured
.
Vaccine acceptance is defined as the decision
made by an individual or group to accept or refuse vaccination when given the opportunity to be vaccinated.
There have been many studies on the acceptance of the new coronavirus vaccine, which varies widely around the world
.
As the pandemic unfolds and misinformation about COVID spreads widely, public acceptance of COVID vaccines may change
over time.
Although a growing number of studies have investigated public acceptance of coronavirus vaccines, there have been few
systematic reviews of these studies.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses to assess global vaccine acceptance and vaccination rates are of great significance
to improve the vaccination rate and prevent and control the epidemic.

Figure 1.
Global assessment of vaccine acceptance among adults and healthcare workers (%)

The study shows that global acceptance of new crown vaccines is well below the herd immunity threshold, and although achieving herd immunity is ideal, it is still necessary to improve the acceptance and vaccination rate of new crown vaccines to prevent and control the epidemic
.
Studies have shown that there are large
differences in vaccine acceptance between different populations, different countries, different times and different demographic characteristics.
Among adults, medical personnel, people with chronic diseases, pregnant/lactating women, university students, children and adolescents, pregnant / lactating women have the lowest acceptance and vaccination rate of the
new crown vaccine.
In addition, the acceptance of the new crown vaccine among women, < 60 years old, blacks, low-education levels, and low-income people is low
.
Among adults, global COVID vaccine acceptance showed a downward trend from February to December 2020, recovered from December 2020 to June 2021, and declined again in late 2021
.
Continuous monitoring of vaccine acceptance, with a focus on countries and populations with low vaccine acceptance, is needed to increase vaccination rates and inform public health
policymaking.

Figure 2.
Trends in COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among adults and healthcare workers over time from February 2020 to December 2021

Figure 3.
Comparison of COVID vaccine acceptance and vaccination rates between adult subgroups

Master Wang Qian and Master Hu Simeng of the School of Public Health, Fudan University are the co-first authors of the paper, and Associate Professor Hou Zhiyuan is the corresponding author
of the paper.
The research was supported
by grants from the National Institute for Health Research (16/137/109), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71874034) and the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan (22692107600).

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