Abstract
This cross-sectional study aimed to measure the awareness, and attitude towards COVID-19 disease as well as new vaccine acceptance, among health field community (healthcare workers, health fields teaching staff and students) at the University of Jeddah, Jeddah Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was designed in English language and included a set of 44 multiple-choice close-ended questions that covered demographic profile of participants, awareness of symptoms and practice against COVID-19. It also included a set of questions that attempted to investigate the attitudes and perceptions towards the uptake of vaccine. Out of the total 186 who participated in this study, 48.4% were 24 years old or younger and 55.9% were health field students. The results showed that majority of participants were aware of most common symptoms and causes of COVID-19 and had positive attitude toward the protective measures against the disease. Regarding the acceptability of vaccination against COVID-19, around 44% of the total participants showed hesitancy to uptake the vaccine of whom, 68.3% were concerned about the adverse effects of the vaccine. Significant differences were found between gender and current position at university of Jeddah in term of vaccine acceptance with p-values of < 0.001. Despite this high level of awareness, health field community at the university of Jeddah have medium acceptance level of disease vaccine. Thus, health educational programs are important to increase the acceptance level among such societies which will contribute to increase the acceptance level among the whole society.