Assessment of the Relationship between Religious Officials' Vaccine Acceptance and Health Literacy

Background Vaccination, which is the most effective protective measure from infectious diseases, has not been able to achieve the desired success in recent years.Religious officials, who have an important effect on the community, can play an important role for the vaccine acceptance. The study was aimed to assesment of vaccine acceptance and health literacy(HL) among religious officials. Methods This cross-sectional study, 72%(n = 328) of the religious officials in the city were reached. The questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic characteristics, Vaccine Acceptance Instrument (VAI) and Chew Health Literacy Scale(CHLS) which was developed by Sarathchandra et al. The instrument,which language validity and reliability were made by the researchers, consisted of 16 items and one dimension. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.841. The cut off score the scale was determined by ROC analysis according to the variable of getting vaccinated. Those who scored above 54 points were determined as those who accepted the vaccine. It is accepted that HL decreases as the score on the CHLS increases. Results The mean age(SD) study group was 41.9(9.2), and the 76.8% were male. The vaccine acceptance frequency of religious officials was 58.8%. The CHLS score was lower in those who accepted the vaccine(p = 0.001). The HL level of 43.9% was below the mean score. 33.8% of the study group reported that they were advising the community about vaccination. According to multiple logistic regression analysis, vaccine acceptance was 2.16(OR;95% CI,1.15-4.08) higher in males, 3.01(1.73-5.25) higher who had information, 6.14 times(1.57-23.94) higher who had their children vaccinated, and 0.8 times(0.74-0.91) lower with who had low HL. Conclusions Vaccine acceptance among religious officials was found to be insufficient. The frequency of vaccination acceptance was higher in male, those who had high knowledge about the vaccine, those who had their children vaccinated, and those with high HL. Key messages Increasing the acceptance of vaccines among religious officials is an important issue as it affects the community. It would be beneficial to increase their knowledge level on this issue. Health literacy is important in increasing the acceptance of vaccines among religious officials as it affects the community.