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COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Turkey: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2023

Bugra Taygun Gulle*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey
Meryem Merve Oren
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
Tuba Dal
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Ankara, Turkey
*
Corresponding author: Bugra Taygun Gulle; Email: bugrataygun.gulle@deu.edu.tr
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Abstract

This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to estimate the prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine hesitancy in Turkey, which can aid future health policies and strategies. A comprehensive search was conducted on various databases using keywords related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Turkey. Quality assessment was performed using Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist for prevalence studies. Data extraction was conducted. The random effect model (DerSimonian and Laird method) was used in pooled prevalence data analysis (95% confidence interval [CI]). A total of 1,072 articles were identified. After removing duplicates and excluding articles, 61 articles remained for bias assessment. Among these, 19 articles with low risk of bias were included in the review and meta-analysis. Total population included in the analysis was 15,164, vaccine hesitancy was 30.5% (95% Cl: 24.3–36.8%). Prevalence of the vaccine hesitancy was found to be 39.8% (95% Cl: 31.4–48.2%) in studies conducted before the initiation of vaccination, while in studies conducted after the commencement of vaccination, hesitancy was 20.4% (95% Cl: 12.9–28%). We suggest conducting high-quality studies in different populations to understand the level of vaccine hesitancy, as many of the previous studies have mainly focused on healthcare workers and students, and rest were community-based studies, which have generally shown high bias. Also, we suggest that early vaccination can reduce vaccine hesitancy.

Information

Type
Original Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Flow-chart of bibliographic research.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy according to the regions.

Figure 2

Table 1. Characteristics of the selected studies in meta-analysis and systematic review

Figure 3

Figure 3. Forest plot of the pooled prevalence of vaccine hesitancy.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Forest plot of the pooled prevalence of vaccine hesitancy as determined by the different timing of survey (before vs. after vaccination start).

Figure 5

Figure 5. Funnel plot of included and imputed studies in the meta-analysis for publication bias.

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