Attitude and level of COVID-19 vaccination and its determinants among patients with chronic disease visiting Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease is a fatal viral disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. This study was aimed to assess the attitude, level of COVID-19 vaccine uptake, and its determinants among patients with chronic diseases visiting Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 randomly selected patients with chronic disease visiting Debre Tabor Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from February 1 to March 30, 2022. Bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were done to identify associations between dependent and independent variables. RESULTS: Among all participants, only 29.6% of patients were vaccinated with any of the COVID-19 vaccines at least one dose. Age from 31 to 40 years (AOR = 6.26, 95% CI: 2.69-14.56), attended collage and above (AOR = 6.3, 95% CI: 1.37, 28.68), positive attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine (AOR = 9.07, 95% CI: 4.51-18.22), good knowledge (AOR = 7.63, 95% CI: 1.08-16.85), history of COVID-19 (AOR = 4.33, 95% CI: 1.85-10.17), family history of COVID-19 (AOR = 3.99, 95% CI = 1.89-8.48), ever been tested for COVID-19 (AOR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.15-0.74) were determinant factors for COVID-19 vaccine uptake. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 vaccine uptake among patients with chronic disease was very low. The main reasons for not being vaccinated were doubts about vaccine efficacy, the vaccine may cause disease by itself, and fear of adverse effects. Therefore, different stakeholders should enforce vaccine uptake and awareness creation.