Willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the population aged 80 years and older in Colombia 2021☆ Disposición a recibir la vacuna contra COVID-19 en población de 80 y más años en Colombia 2021

ABSTRACT

Objective Colombia designed and adopted a vaccination plan against COVID-19 that will immunize 35 million people. The study aim was to detect the level of willingness to accept vaccination against COVID-19. Methods A telephone survey of 11,721 people aged 80 and over, affiliated with a health insurer, was carried out. The respondents were the affiliates or their relatives or caregivers. Results The average age was 85.0 years (SD 4.5), with no differences between sexes;3,344 (28.5%) referred to a previous diagnostic test for COVID-19 and 73 were positive, giving an incidence of 622.8 per 100,000 people (95% CI 491-778). Regarding attitude to vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, 1/4 respondents refrained from giving an opinion or were neutral. When the respondent was a relative, the acceptance of the vaccine was 60.4% (95% CI 59.5-61.3) with differences by gender men 62.2% (95% CI 60.8-63.6) and women 59.2 (95% CI 58.0-60.3), P < .05. When the respondent was the potential recipient of the vaccine, the acceptance of the vaccine was 61.7% (95% CI 59.4-64.0) and this also differed by gender 70.2% in men (95% CI 66, 9-73.5) and 55.1% in women (95% CI 52.0-58.3), P < .05. Conclusion The relatively low acceptance of vaccination against COVID-19 in Colombia poses significant challenges to achieve herd immunity that would allow control of the pandemic.