ABSTRACT
Introduction: COVID-19 is a global pandemic for which vaccination coverage is still low in our environment. Health care workers and particularly those in the oral sphere are at high risk of contracting it. General objective: To evaluate the COVID-19 vaccination coverage among oral health care workers in comparison with other health care workers in Yaounde. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study on 360 individuals in three hospitals in Yaounde, from February to April 2022, i.e., 3 months. All health personnel who gave their free consent consecutively were included. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0 software with a statistical significance level of p<0.05. Results: The coverage rate of the COVID-19 vaccine was 34.2%. The rates of vaccination against COVID-19 were 43.3% and 32.2% in oral sphere practitioners and others respectively (p=0.135). There was no statistically significant difference in the distribution of vaccine received, adverse events and post-vaccination infection rate against SARS-CoV-2 between our two groups (p≥0.05). Conclusion: A similar distribution was found between oral health professionals and other health personnel in terms of vaccination rate, type of vaccine received, and post-vaccination adverse events against SARS-CoV-2. Education seems to be a priority action to target the most at-risk populations.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Vaccination against COVID-19 promoted among high-risk populations such as an oral health care worker is one of the most rapidly and massively deployed interventions in history. Objective: The overall objective of our study was to assess the perception and attitudes regarding COVID-19 vaccination among oral health care workers in comparison to other health care workers in Yaoundé. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2022 (3 months) on 360 health personnel in three hospitals in Yaoundé. All health personnel who gave informed consent were included in the study. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0 software with a significance level of p<0.05. Results: In more than half of the cases, doubt about the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines was found without any difference between the oral practitioners (53.3%) and the others (58.7%) (p=0.476). Fear of harm was mainly found among oral practitioners (75.0% vs 46.4%;p=0.006). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of vaccination coverage and motivations for vaccination between our two socio-professional groups (p ≥0.05). Conclusion: the fear of the harmfulness of the COVID-19 vaccine was preponderant among healthcare personnel working in the oral sphere. De-structuring the representation of this vaccine among this population could improve the response to this disease.