Attitude and Willingness of Chinese Adults with Rheumatic Diseases to Receive COVID-19 Vaccination

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has entered the stage of normal prevention and control.COVID-19 vaccination is the most effective method to control the epidemic. Methods: In this study, we designed a cross-sectional study and a self-administered questionnaire to investigate the vaccine attitude of adult rheumatic diseases (RD) patients in China by convenient sampling method. Chi-squared test and Binary Logistic Regression analysis were used to analyze the predicated factors associated with the willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccination. Results: A total of 464 RD patients were recruited in the survey. 324 (69.83%) were not vaccinated. Chi-squared test showed that there were significant differences in general conditions such as gender, age, personal income, employment situation, whether there was systemic damage ( P < 0.05).Among the RD patients who were not vaccinated,76.97% believed that COVID-19 vaccination might aggravate RD symptoms. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the combination of systemic damage, acute attack stage of the disease, fear of disease development caused by drug discontinuation during the vaccination, ignorance of vaccination guidelines in COVID-19 and fear of influence on rheumatism after vaccination were the limiting factors affecting the vaccination rate of COVID-19 vaccine in adult RD patients [ P < 0.05,OR < 1 (0.04–0.48),95% CI = 0.007–0.929)]. Conclusion: The COVID-19 vaccination rate of adult RD patients in China was relatively low. It was necessary to improve the cognitive level of COVID-19 vaccination among RD patients in stable stage. Funding: This work was financially supported in part by research grants from the Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen(SZSM201602087),Shenzhen Science and Technology Project (JCYJ20180302145033769). Declaration of Interest: None to declare. Ethical Approval: This study was approved by Shenzhen Futian Hospital Ethics Committee Shenzhen Futian Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases(No. FS202101001).