COVID-19 Vaccination Knowledge, Attitudes, Perception, and Practices Among Frontline Healthcare Workers in Tunisia, 2024
<b>Background/Objectives</b>: Healthcare workers (HCW) in primary care settings play a significant role in recommending vaccines to patients. We aimed to describe COVID-19 vaccination knowledge, attitudes, perception, and practices (KAPP) of HCWs in Tunisia and identify associated factors. <b>Methods</b>: We conducted a national cross-sectional survey (29 January to 3 February 2024) among HCWs in primary public healthcare centers using purposive sampling. Factors associated with good knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice, measured through Likert scales using face-to-face questionnaires, were identified using binary logistic regression. <b>Results</b>: We included 906 HCWs (mean age = 41.87 ± 8.89 years). In total, 37.75% (342/906) of HCWs had good knowledge and perception, 4.30% (39/906) had a positive attitude, and 24.9% (226/906) had good practices related to COVID-19 vaccination. Working in urban compared to rural areas was associated with good knowledge (aOR = 1.57, 95%CI = 1.12-2.21) and positive attitude (aOR = 4.94, 95%CI = 1.19-20.44) to COVID-19 vaccination. Physicians had better KAPP scores than other medical professionals. HCWs working in departments with high-risk patients were more likely to have good knowledge (aOR = 1.28, 95%CI = 1.00-1.72). Positive attitude was also associated with being male (aOR = 2.97, 95%CI = 1.75-5.07) and having at least one non-communicable disease (aOR = 1.92, 95%CI = 1.14-3.23). Being male (aOR = 1.97, 95%CI = 1.35-2.88) and having more years of professional experience (aOR = 1.81, 95%CI = 1.29-2.52) were associated with good practice. <b>Conclusions</b>: Just over a third of HCWs in primary healthcare clinics had good knowledge of COVID-19 vaccination, while positive attitudes and good practices were low. Targeted interventions, particularly for HCWs with less professional experience working in rural settings, are needed to increase good practices and improve COVID-19 vaccination coverage in Tunisia.
Authors
- Hajer Letaief (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3418-1853)
- Eva Bazant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1212-8410)
- Rim Mhadhbi
- N. Alaya
- Asma Fourati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1980-7739)
- Asma Sahli
- Katie Palmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8783-016X)
- Aicha Hechaichi Hechaichi
- Chelsey Griffin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6588-4685)
- Sami Fitouri
- Ghaida Nahdi
- Sonia Dhaouadi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6676-9045)
- Khouloud Talmoudi
- Amenallah Zouaiti
- Khouloud Nouira
- Fatma Ben Youssef
- Ihab Basha
Institutions
- Tunis University (TN)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US)
- The Task Force for Global Health (US)
- National Institute of Meteorology (TN)
- Faculté de médecine de Tunis
- European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (SE)
- Tunis El Manar University (TN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Vaccines
- Published
- 2026-01-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines14010074
- Primary Topic
- Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00