{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,24]],"date-time":"2026-04-24T19:22:02Z","timestamp":1777058522618,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]],"date-time":"2023-01-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1673222400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>Vaccine distrust and rejection are thought to contribute to disease outbreaks and increased mortality. The present study aimed to analyze the socio-cultural characteristics and attitudes of the Saudi population toward vaccines, using a cross-sectional survey-based approach.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>An online questionnaire was used, following the snowball method. A total of 444 people responded, of whom 333 (75%) were female, and 111 (25%) were male.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The demographic characteristics associated with vaccine confidence were gender, job type, medical problems, and knowledge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms. The hesitancy was highest (31.17%) among individuals aged 21\u201330 years old, and in more males (27.03%) expressed hesitancy than females (25.23%). However, if we focused on the percentage of the refusal to receive the vaccine, more females (15.23%) refused the vaccine than males (4.5%). More than one-third of the vaccine-hesitant respondents had limited knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms. Personal characteristics associated with vaccine confidence were described as the following: do not fully trust vaccines produced in a short time (42.1%), fear of the future results of the vaccine (30.4%), reluctance to allow a foreign material to enter the body (17.6%), no interaction with others, so no need for the vaccine (11.5%), low interaction with people (67.8%), and reluctance to make decisions (11.3%). The primary social motivation for getting the vaccine was to get back to normal life (67.6%).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p>The results of the present study revealed that more than half of the respondents in Saudi Arabia were confident about the vaccine (61.7%), while only 25.7% were hesitant and 12.6% were unconvinced. Based on these results, in the early period of COVID-19 vaccine administration in the country (early 2021), before any governmental allowance and political intervention, we found that the socio-demographic and socio-cultural characteristics of the population were significant factors contributing to vaccination acceptance. Therefore, policymakers should support long-term safety studies of the vaccine, conduct educational programs giving high-priority to the populations' health, and tailor vaccination hesitancy reduction techniques to local communities.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2022.1026252","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,10]],"date-time":"2023-01-10T13:44:37Z","timestamp":1673358277000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["The socio-cultural factors behind the Saudi attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination: A survey-based study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Muna","family":"Al-Ghuraibi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ibrahim M.","family":"Dighriri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mahmoud 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