Background: Iraq has yet to establish and initiate any vaccination initiatives to address the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and mitigate its spread and mortality. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the existing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding COVID-19 vaccination amid the third wave of the outbreak. Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized an anonymous online questionnaire, modeled after a study conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to investigate COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and practices during the third wave of the outbreak in the country. Results: In total, 2744 subjects from 27 camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP camps) in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, mostly male 1642 (61.4%), either with no previous education 701 (26.2%) or with a primary school degree 973 (36.4%), married 1610 (60.2%) and since 2014 1540 (57.6%) stationaed in the IDP Camps were included in the study. Mean age of our sample was 35.2±12.9 ranging 18- 94 years. The mean knowledge test score for our sample was 6.9±3.7 with correct answer rates ranging 27.7-78.2%. Only 31 (1.2%) of subjects scored maximum points on the knowledge test score. In total 1170 (42.7%) subjects agreed that COVID-19 vaccination programs will prevail in a battle versus COVID-19, while 1592 (58.0%) agreed that everyone should be vaccinated against COVID-19. Regarding the vaccination rates, only 421 (15.3%) have already been vaccinated against COVID-19, while 1658 (62.7%) expressed interest to get vaccinated in the future. Conclusion: Our study sheds light on vaccination attitudes among IDP camps in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Despite lower knowledge scores, willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19 is relatively high, likely due to limited access to vaccines, perceived risk of the disease, and trust in healthcare providers.
Key words: COVID-19, pandemic, Iraq, vaccination, healthcare.
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