| Abstract |
INTRODUCTION: The present dissertation deals with the attitudes and perceptions, which have been formed in the domestic general adult population of Crete, about the vaccine against COVID-19 disease. health policy makers, to outperform conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine movements, to tackle, curb the spread of the disease, reduce serious illness or even death, and eventually eliminate this pathogen at a local, nationally, and globally.
PURPOSE-TARGET: The purpose of this research was to compile, record, compare, through the answers of the participants in it, to analyse, to try to interpret and to give, as conclusions, in the best possible way, all those the data, which may help to decode and understand the current evolving and constantly changing situation, which shapes attitudes and perceptions, regarding the issue of COVID-19 coronavirus vaccinations. In particular, it aimed, through the statistical analysis of the data, which emerged from the comparison of the responses of the sample of this study, to highlight and promote the attitudes and perceptions that prevail in the Cretan population, regarding the vaccine against COVID disease. -19, as well as to "detect" possible prognostic factors or risk variables, which may shape or influence them. A separate and parallel goal of this study was even to look for any differences in attitudes and perceptions of the population against COVID-19 vaccines, depending on the demographics and health characteristics of the population of interest.
METHODOLOGY: Population of interest was decided to be the adult population that visited during the period June and July 2021 the primary health structure, which had been established and operated as a vaccination centre at the Medical School of the University of Crete, or as a candidate an accompanying candidate for vaccination, who stated, however, that he had either not yet been vaccinated, or had even visited this primary care facility as a regular visitor during the above year. The total population of the study was 365 adults, namely 148 people who stated that they had not yet been vaccinated, and 217 people who had received the first or second dose of vaccine or were about to receive it. For the elaboration of this study, it is noted that a relevant permit was obtained from the 7th Health District of Crete.
RESULTS: The total population of the study was 365 adults, namely 148 people who stated that they had not been vaccinated yet, and 217 people who had received the first or second dose of vaccine or were about to receive it.
The data collection was based on two weighted and structured questionnaires, created by Professor Ioanna Tsiligianni and Anna Manidaki, Social Worker, and which were compiled using the literature, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), and needs, in relation to what has been observed in the news and which the survey participants were asked to complete. Specifically, the questionnaire that referred to people who have not been vaccinated (before vaccination) contained a total of 49 questions, while the questionnaire that referred to vaccinated people (after vaccination) included a total of 53 questions to be completed. In both questionnaires the questions, which the participants were asked to complete, essentially moved in three axes: a) to demographic questions (gender, age, level of education, income level), i) to questions about their attitudes and views participants, who tried to "detect" the intention of each participant to be vaccinated, as well as the degree of influence of its will from parameters related to the effectiveness of the vaccine, its innovative manufacturing techniques, any individual side effects, which have occurred in vaccinated individuals, the reason or not of vaccination, ii) in questions, graded with five-point Likert scale, for the attitudes and views of the participants towards some cases, which concerned parameters of either the vaccine itself (e.g. safety of the vaccine, its usefulness, natural immunity against vaccine immunity, side effects of the vaccine, etc.), or of the vaccine itself movement (e.g. vaccination policy management by experts, distrust of political power, acceptance of anti-vaccination theories, etc.), and c) questions of agreement or disagreement regarding the introduction of compulsory or non-vaccination in the general population, and the rejection of vaccines as a means of dealing with this pathogen, as well as the various sources of information for each participant issue of vaccines. The only additional dimension added to the supplementation questionnaire in the vaccinated population was that of questions about side effects after receiving the vaccine dose.
The present study was cross-sectional and reportedly used convenience sampling to collect its data. At the stage of statistical analysis it is pointed out that in addition to the quantitative variables there were also qualitative variables and in particular nominal or ordered, while they were expressed in the form of frequencies and% of frequencies. Pearson's x2 test was used to correlate the variables. In specific cases it was required to calculate the score from the sums of the individual question-statements and the difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated was checked with the t-test for independent samples. The statistical program IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0 was used for the statistical analysis of the results and α = 0.05 was set as the significance limit, while the confidence interval was set at 95%, the error limit at 5% and the validity of the study at 80%.
The main results of the study were that: 1. In the total study population, women had a higher participation with a rate of 57.2%, while most declared unvaccinated, with a rate of 64.8%. The main fears that seemed to be faced by both sub-populations, but mainly the unvaccinated group, were the side effects, the ineffectiveness, and the new techniques - the short time of preparation and release of the vaccine.3. Participants' sources of information about the pandemic, the vaccine and the vaccination campaign, did not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated, with scientific journals and the internet in the forefront. Distrust in the political system seemed to negatively affect both sub-populations, which did not happen in the case of the pandemic management by experts. The influences of political, religious leadership and the media varied between vaccinated and unvaccinated. In particular, the vaccinated had a positive reaction to the issue of their possible influence from the attitude of the political and religious world towards the pandemic, while the unvaccinated did not have the same positive reaction to these factors.4. percentage of unvaccinated, that of the order of 72.4%, while 5. the obligation of vaccination seemed to be considered by a large part of the study population as restricting his individual rights.
CONCLUSIONS: Concluding and interpreting the above results of this study, we came to the fact that the vaccinated individuals proved to be more positively related to issues concerning the characteristics of both the vaccine itself and the vaccination movement in general, but this does not mean that they did not have any doubts about its effectiveness and the restriction of their individual freedoms, or fears about its side effects and the way and time of its construction. Those who are not vaccinated seem to be more ardent supporters of statements or speculations about either the non-existence of the virus, the inadequacy of the vaccine in terms of its effectiveness, or even the complete violation of their individual rights. All of the above results confirm the fact that health pandemics, although they do not occur often, when they do occur, they can be catastrophic for humans and completely remove them from the goal of sustainable development. Therefore, the interventions of the scientific community are necessary, at any level, by any means and to any degree, in order to finally achieve the reduction or elimination of negative prognostic factors or variables of vaccination risk against this disease and to adopt immediate programs. locally, nationally, and globally, based on quality, holistic and ongoing health services.
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