Public acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines and its predictors in Middle ‎Eastern/North African (MENA) countries: a systematic review‎

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 vaccines emerged as a worldwide hope to contain the pandemic. However, many people ‎are still hesitant to receive these vaccines. We aimed to systematically review the public knowledge, perception, and acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries and the predictors of vaccine acceptability in this region. METHODS: We systematically searched databases of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane and retrieved ‎all relevant studies by 5 August 2021. RESULTS: There was a considerable variation in the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance ‎rates, from 12% in a study from Israel to 83.3% in Kuwait, although two other studies from Israel mentioned 75% ‎and 82.2% acceptability rates. Concerns about the side effects and safety of the vaccine were the main reasons for ‎the lack of acceptability of taking the vaccine, which was reported in 19 studies. ‎ CONCLUSION: Several factors, such as age, gender, education level, and comorbidities, ‎are worthy of attention as they could expand vaccine coverage in the target population.‎