ABSTRACT
Background: Following the establishment of the vaccination plan to counter the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, cancer patients were immediately included among the population groups most at risk. Despite the recommendations, many patients did not adhere to the vaccination plan, showing skepticism and low confidence in the vaccine. For this reason, this research was established, with the aim of investigating, from a multifactorial and multidimensional point of view, the variables that influenced the perception of trust in the anti-Covid-19 vaccine, in order to intervene on them and encourage vaccination membership. Material (patients) and methods: A questionnaire was created, containing the Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983), the Distress Thermometer (Roth et al., 1998) and four questions investigating the perception of vaccination efficacy or ineffectiveness, which can be evaluated on a simplified scale 1-4. This questionnaire was administered to cancer patients immediately before the inoculation of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine. This questionnaire was administered both during the first (T0) and during the second dose (T1) of the vaccine, so as to be able to detect the differences between the variables considered. Results: Preliminary data on a sample of 342 patients were analyzed: the average age was 66.22 and its composition was mostly female (57.9%). In both vaccine administrations, distress, anxiety and depression were found to be within normal and below threshold values, while the perceived efficacy of the vaccine was found to be slightly higher at T1 than at T0. Distress was found to affect all the variables considered;its reduction, therefore, involves the modification of the average values of anxiety, depression, efficacy and ineffectiveness of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine. Conclusions: The reduction in perceived distress and the related increase in overall confidence in the anti- Covid-19 vaccine can be explained by historical and contextual factors, given the high sensitivity of the Distress Thermometer in detecting perceived distress within the 7 days prior to its compilation. Further data will be presented, given the ideas that this research poses for future studies.