Intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases

ABSTRACT

Understanding COVID-19 vaccination attitudes is of paramount importance in order to estimate and influence the willingness to vaccinate. A cross-sectional study was performed in the spring of 2021 in Romania by sending a web-based questionnaire to patients with rheumatic autoimmune diseases in order to assess their willingness to vaccinate against SARS CoV-2 and to identify factors that might influence their decision. Variables derived from the questionnaire were analyzed in univariable and multivariable analysis. 71 patients, of which 60 (84.5%) women, were included in the study, with a 53.5% (38 subjects) willingness to vaccinate. A positive association was observed between the willingness to vaccinate and the patients' trust in authorities, trust in the healthcare system and the choice of scientific sources of information in their decision making. A positive correlation was observed between the intention to vaccinate and the global VAX score, as well as the subscale VAX scores (p<0.05). Global VAX score emerged as a predictive factor for the intention to vaccinate on logistic regression (p<0.05). The present study underlines the importance of reliable scientific sources of information for pa-tients with autoimmune diseases and how the general attitude about vaccination becomes a pre-dictive factor for accepting COVID-19 vaccine.