Facteurs de réticence vaccinale contre la COVID-19 chez les patients diabétiques à Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Vaccine hesitancy is a common issue in many countries and is likely to hamper the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. This reluctance is alarming in diabetic patients who are more prone to severe forms of the disease. The aim of this study was to determine the COVID-19 vaccination rate in a population of diabetics followed for their diabetes and to analyze the factors associated with vaccine hesitancy. This cross-sectional, multicenter study, was carried out over 3 months (January 1st-March 31, 2022) in five consultation centers in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. All 254 patients with diabetes who had a consultation were included. There were more women than men (56.3%) and more with under high school diploma (72.8%). Among them, 2% had COVID-19 once and 14% had relatives affected with COVID-19; 63.8% knew the symptoms of COVID-19 and the media (TV and social networks) were the main source of information (81.9%). Among the patients included, 51.9% were not vaccinated against COVID-19; 25.9% refused vaccination while 12.0% were hesitant due to their diabetes. The reasons for refusal were: fear of side effects, questionable effectiveness of the vaccine and fear of injections.