ORCID Profile
0000-0003-2077-3257
Current Organisation
Al-Quds University Faculty of Dentistry
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Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-12-2022
DOI: 10.1186/S40249-022-01047-Y
Abstract: During the COVID-19 vaccination, the access to vaccines has been unequal among countries and in iduals, for ex le low-income countries displayed significant low levels of vaccination. Furthermore, most refugees are living in developing low-income countries which struggling to access the essential health-care services including vaccination. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the experiences and perceptions of COVID-19 infection and vaccination among Palestine refugees in Jerash c compared to resident Jordanian citizens. A face-to-face interview-based comparative cross-sectional study was carried out among Palestine refugees in Jerash c located in northern Jordan and Jordanian citizens from different cities in Jordan from October, 2021 to March, 2022. A Chi-square test was used to determine the differences in the experiences and perceptions of COVID-19 infection and vaccination between Palestinian refugees and resident Jordanian citizens. Logistic regression analysis was performed to predict factors associated with the beliefs, barriers and hesitancy towards COVID-19 vaccines. The total number of participants was 992, with 501 (50.5%) Palestinian refugees and 491 (49.5%) Jordanian citizens. Most participants (64.1%) who have never been tested for COVID-19 were from the refugees ( P 0.001), whereas about 80.3% of the participants tested for COVID-19 at private healthcare institutions were citizens ( P 0.001). While 70.0% of the participants who tested positive for COVID-19 ( n = 303) were from the refugees ( P 0.001). Compared to the citizens, the refugees had significantly lower levels of beliefs about the safety ( P = 0.008) and efficiency ( P 0.001) of COVID-19 vaccines. They also had lower rates of vaccine hesitancy ( P = 0.002) and vaccine uptake ( P 0.001), and a higher rate of facing difficulties during registration for COVID-19 vaccination ( P 0.001). Furthermore, refugees have more negative attitudes toward the importance and implementation of COVID-19 precautionary activities, including wearing face masks, practicing social distancing and following proper prevention hygiene compared to citizens ( P 0.001). The regression analysis showed that gender ( P 0.001), age ( P 0.001) and level of education ( P = 0.001) were significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Also, being a refugee ( P 0.001) and being a male ( P = 0.012) were significantly associated with facing more difficulties upon the registration to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. This study showed that, compared to citizens, refugees had lower attitudes and practices toward COVID-19 infection and vaccination. They also had and a lower rate of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake with limited access to vaccines. Government sectors and non-government organizations should implement policies and regulations to raise the awareness of refugees towards COVID-19 infection, testing, preventive measures, and the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 26-02-2022
Abstract: Background: The unprecedented global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has imposed huge challenges on the healthcare facilities, and impacted every aspect of life. This has led to the development of several vaccines against COVID-19 within one year. This study aimed to assess the attitudes and the side effects among Arab communities after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and use of machine learning (ML) tools to predict post-vaccination side effects based on predisposing factors. Methods: An online-based multinational survey was carried out via social media platforms from 14 June to 31 August 2021, targeting in iduals who received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine from 22 Arab countries. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. Moreover, extensive ML tools were utilized to predict 30 post vaccination adverse effects and their severity based on 15 predisposing factors. The importance of distinct predisposing factors in predicting particular side effects was determined using global feature importance employing gradient boost as AutoML. Results: A total of 10,064 participants from 19 Arab countries were included in this study. Around 56% were female and 59% were aged from 20 to 39 years old. A high rate of vaccine hesitancy (51%) was reported among participants. Almost 88% of the participants were vaccinated with one of three COVID-19 vaccines, including Pfizer-BioNTech (52.8%), AstraZeneca (20.7%), and Sinopharm (14.2%). About 72% of participants experienced post-vaccination side effects. This study reports statistically significant associations (p 0.01) between various predisposing factors and post-vaccinations side effects. In terms of predicting post-vaccination side effects, gradient boost, random forest, and XGBoost outperformed other ML methods. The most important predisposing factors for predicting certain side effects (i.e., tiredness, fever, headache, injection site pain and swelling, myalgia, and sleepiness and laziness) were revealed to be the number of doses, gender, type of vaccine, age, and hesitancy to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusions: The reported side effects following COVID-19 vaccination among Arab populations are usually non-life-threatening flu-like symptoms and injection site pain. Certain predisposing factors have greater weight and importance as input data in predicting post-vaccination side effects. Based on the most significant input data, ML can also be used to predict these side effects people with certain predicted side effects may require additional medical attention, or possibly hospitalization.
Location: United States of America
Location: Palestine, State of
No related grants have been discovered for Elham Kateeb.