DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2jm63xsr9
title: Misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccine among adults in Saudi Arabia and their associated factor

description: It is of the utmost importance for the elements that influence public
 compliance to the COVID-19 vaccine to be assessed, including
 misconceptions, rumors, and conspiracy theories. Hence our study aimed to
 estimate the distribution of the most common misconceptions and their
 predictors in Saudi Arabia. We distributed an online questionnaire to
 participants who were 18 years or older at the time of the survey, which
 included four sections: demographic characteristics of participants, level
 of their education, their sources of information, and perception of
 participants regarding eleven of the most common misconceptions in the
 community. An evaluation of the relationships between different predictors
 and acceptance of these misconceptions was conducted using ordinal
 logistic regression; the most widely accepted misconception was that the
 vaccine has serious side effects, with 34.8% of participants reporting
 this. Accepting this misinformation Factors that were significantly
 associated with acceptance or refusal of misconceptions were: Gender, as
 females in this survey significantly accept rumors more than males
 (p&lt;0.001); Educational level, especially secondary school, was
 associated with a significant decrease in acceptance of misconceptions
 (p=0.001); Information source. 60.5% of participants use social media as
 their primary source of information, and it was also a significant
 positive predictor of acceptance of misconceptions (p=0.034). It is of
 utmost importance to increase assurance in the safety of the vaccine, as
 it was the most accepted misconception, and to address the elements that
 affect believing rumors among the population.
description: This study is a cross-sectional study in which an online survey
 was undertaken in Saudi Arabia between the 21st of April to December 28th,
 2021. All adult male or female individuals (Citizens and Residents) who
 were older than 18 years and lived inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
 during the study were allowed to participate. The data was gathered using
 a Google form-based Questionnaire and electronic invitations were sent
 using WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter. In the first
 section of the questionnaire, participants were informed about the
 study's purposes and assured about the confidentiality of their
 information. Their consent was obtained before proceeding with the
 questionnaire, and they were allowed to withdraw at any time.
 A pilot study was initially carried out with 10% of participants
 beforehand to test the applicability and accessibility of the study
 sample, to reveal the difficulties in the design and language that may
 arise in the questions, and to determine the best way to deal with them.
 The questions were written in the Arabic language because it is the
 official language of participants and then translated to English. Then
 results were retranslated back to Arabic to assure that no change in the
 meaning occurred.  A Likert scale of 4-points was
 designed to assess the acceptance of many misconceptions that spread among
 the public and their predictors. In which agreeance to the misconception
 denoted the number: Strongly agree (4), Agree (3), Disagree (2); Strongly
 disagree (1). <strong>Survey
 Items</strong> The survey consists of two parts;
 the first section contains questions on the sociodemographic
 characteristics of participants, including gender, age, profession, and
 educational level, in addition to the origin of information in regard to
 COVID-19. The second section was composed of 11
 misconceptions, which were derived from literature, community, social
 media, and websites, and respondents were requested to demonstrate to what
 extent they agree or disagree with each of the ten items using a 4-point
 scale which was categorized into strongly disagree assigned (1) to
 strongly agree (4). The eleven misconceptions discussed
 were: 1) I do not believe in the safety of the COVID-19
 vaccine. 2) My genetic material will be affected by the
 COVID-19 vaccine. 3) A device will be implanted in my
 body using the COVID-19 vaccine. 4) The COVID-19
 vaccine has serious side effects, such as causing a severe
 allergy. 5) Fertility is decreased in women by the
 COVID-19 vaccine. 6) I have been infected before with
 COVID-19 so vaccination is unnecessary. 7) Once I am
 vaccinated, I don't have to wear a facemask. 8)
 COVID-19 vaccine will change my test result to positive.
 9) I'm unlikely to have complications from Covid-19, so it
 is not necessary for me to be vaccinated. 10) You can
 get COVID-19 from the vaccine. 11) If I am vaccinated I
 am more likely to get another disease.