Factors affecting vaccine hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccination among non-medical frontliners / Gen-Ghis Ramil O. Urtal, Charlene Pangaliban, Tresni Ann Pilapil, Michaela Prejoles, Rouen Lloyd Raymundo, Jan Henri Reyes and Joan Archy Serna.

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Abstract: This study focused on the factors affecting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among non-medical frontliners. Analytical study was employed to examine the relationships between factors such as sociodemographic, income, vaccine status, sources of information, and knowledge on vaccines on vaccine hesitancy. Fisher's Exact Test was used to determine the relationship between perceived effectiveness on COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine hesitancy (p-value = 0.000) which has a significant relationship, while pseudo R2 regression was used to determine the likelihood of being vaccine hesitant. Individuals who think that the COVID-19 vaccine was not effective were at most risk of being vaccine hesitant (POR = 1.67) compared to those who think that it is effective ('baseline', POR = 1.00). Other factors presented in the study such as age, sex, religion, education, occupation, vaccination status, booster shot, preferred vaccine, source of information, social media platform used, safety and knowledge about the vaccine showed no significance. Considering all the factors with no significance evaluated, the most at risk was the middle income respondents (POR = 1.06) and the least effective was those who preferred Johnson and Johnson as their preferred vaccine (POR = 0.89). In conclusion, vaccine hesitancy was not prevalent among non-medical frontliners. This could be attributed to the result of the government's efforts to combat the COVID-19 virus and promote vaccination against it. The time interval when the research was conducted and the peak of mass vaccination efforts must also be considered.

Thesis - Department of Community & Family Medicine