Factors Associated with COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among People with Epilepsy in Lithuania

The purpose of our study was to determine the willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and factors associated with vaccine hesitancy among people with epilepsy (PWE) In December 2020, we performed an online cross-sectional survey of PWE and their caregivers in Lithuania before the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to the public The study sample consisted of 111 respondents (44 (39 6%) male, median age 25 years (range 1 to 70)) From 58 PWE who personally responded to the survey, 27 (46 6%) would be willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 Among the 53 caregivers, 18 (34 0%) would accept the person they care for to be vaccinated Willingness to be vaccinated was associated with receiving an influenza shot in 2020 (odds ratio (OR) = 9 17, 95% confidence interval (CI = 1 15–73 47), the beliefs that vaccines are generally safe (OR = 7 90, 95% CI = 2 43–25 74) and that they are the only convenient way to gain immunity (OR = 3 91, 95% CI = 1 02–15 05) Respondents were hesitant to accept the COVID-19 vaccine if they thought it could cause the infection (OR = 0 14, 95% CI = 0 04–0 49) COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is frequent among PWE and their caregivers It is probably related to erroneous beliefs about their safety and mechanism of action