Perceived Barriers and COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Among Health Professions Students in Vietnam

Health professions students are at high risk of contracting COVID-19 when practicing in medical facilities. The delay in accepting vaccination by this force is a barrier to providing effective immunity against the COVID-19 epidemic. This study was conducted on 384 students of the Da Nang University of Medicine Technology and Pharmacy with the aim of exploring the barriers affecting COVID-19 vaccine acceptance by healthcare students. The results showed that most of the students concerned about "the side effects of the vaccine that may interfere with daily living activities" (48.5%), followed by “worried about the safety of vaccination” (37.2%) and “worried about the effectiveness of vaccination” (33.6%), respectively. Binominal logistic regression showed that “worried about the safety of vaccination” (OR = 0.4; 95% CI 0.2 – 0.8), “worried about the effectiveness of vaccination” (OR = 0.5; 95% CI 0.2 – 0.9), and “afraid needle and injection” (OR = 0.4; 95% CI 0.2 – 0.4) were predictors to COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Therefore, choosing a vaccine that is safe, has few side effects, and has high immunity could increase the acceptance rate of the COVID19 vaccination