Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among the general population; a systematic review

Vaccination is the best strategy to prevent the transmission and spread of some diseases, including the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). Various COVID-19 vaccines are now available with high efficacy and safety, and they proved their efficacy to reduce the mortality rate due to COVID-19. However, the uptake of the general population to the vaccine is still low. To assess the level of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among the general population by reviewing the previous studies conducted on this subject. PubMed and Google scholar databases were explored starting from 2021 to 2022. The search terms included "Acceptance, COVID-19 vaccine, Attitude, General population, Acceptance rate, COVID-19 vaccination," which were used in a variety of combinations to obtain all possible articles. The inclusion criteria were original articles in English Language where the research was conducted among the general population and reported the acceptance of the general population regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. A total of 1,641 articles were obtained; eight articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in our analysis. The eight studies included a total number of 22,938 participants and were conducted in eight different countries. The range of acceptance rate was 37.4% to79.8%. There was a moderate acceptance rate of the general population regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. The factors associated with vaccine acceptance were either related to the individuals or the vaccine. Increasing the knowledge of the general population about the COVID-19 vaccine is the key factor to increasing the acceptance rate.