Jingyi Xiao, Justin K Cheung, Peng Wu, Michael Y Ni, Benjamin J Cowling, Qiuyan Liao

Vaccine hesitancy is one of the 10 threats to global health according to the World Health Organization. In the era of COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy affects vaccination coverage in many parts of the world. Some studies have explored the factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy at single points in time, but relatively few studies have explored factors associated with changing hesitancy overtime at different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and different stages of COVID-19 vaccination programs. We searched PubMed on 4 December 2021 for cross-sectional studies assessing the temporal changes of potential factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination intention and vaccine hesitancy with the following search terms ((COVID-19 OR SARS-CoV-2) AND (vaccine hesitancy OR vaccine uptake OR vaccination intention) AND (factors OR predictors OR determinants OR reasons OR drivers OR barriers) AND (changes OR change OR trend OR overtime OR overtime OR temporal)). We found two studies examining the potential factors associated with the changing vaccination intention or vaccine hesitancy at different time points before the rollout of the mass COVID-19 vaccination programs and five studies examining the potential factors at different time points at the beginning and after the program rollout. None of them comprehensively studied the temporal changes of potential factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination intention or vaccine hesitancy before and after the rollout of the mass COVID-19 vaccination program.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy can lead to reduced vaccine uptake and hinder the safe relaxation of other public health measures. This study aims to explore the factors associated with vaccine hesitancy and uptake among adults before and after the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination program in Hong Kong.

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