JPSIM Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine J Pak Soc Intern Med 2709-8729 2710-0804 Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine 10.70302/jpsim.v6i4.2564 jpsim.v6i4.2564 Original Research Vaccine Hesitancy: Prevalence and Strategies to Improve Uptake of Optional Vaccines Among Immunocompromised Patients and Health Care Providers Dar Umar Farooq umardar84@gmail.com * Maqsood Muhammad Javed Muhammad Tauseef Afzal Masem Iqbal Tariq Rajput Nauman Rafi Avicenna Medical College Lahore DHQ Teaching Hospital Gujranwala Gujranwala Medical College Gulab Devi Teaching Hospital Lahore Kawaja Muammad Safdar Medical College Sialkot Sahara Medical College Narowal *Correspondence: Umar Farooq Dar (umardar84@gmail.com) 21 11 2025 2025 6 4 348 353 30 01 2025 22 03 2025 11 10 2025 Copyright © 2025 The Author(s) 2025 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective

This study was carried out for determination of vaccine hesitancy and its logics among health care providers (HCPs) across Punjab and immunocompromised patients.

 Methodology

A cross-sectional analytical study was carried out and collected data from 169 HCPs across Punjab and 199 immunocompromised patients from healthcare facilities associated with Gujranwala Medical College and Al-Aleem Medical College using consecutive snowball sampling method. A self-administered, valid survey form was used to obtain quantitative data. Vaccine hesitancy was defined as refusal to register or uptake an advised vaccine shot despite availability of vaccination services.

 Results

In our study sample (n=368), mean age of participants (n=368) was 35 years, and 41% participants were female. 199 participants (54.1%) were immunocompromised patients while 45.9% were HCPs. In our total study population, 151 (41.0%) were vaccine hesitant, among them 51% were HCPs. Only 129 (35.1%) participants have a positive perception & attitude towards general vaccination. The difference in prevalence of vaccine hesitancy is significant between HCPs and Immunocompromised patients (P

 Conclusion

It is concluded that vaccine hesitancy is still high among immunocompromised patients and healthcare providers. Continuous health education and media campaigns need to target young male individuals who are under influence of social media.

 Keywords Vaccine Hesitancy Vaccine Immunization Vaccine confidence Optional vaccines immunocompromised patients. Ethics Statement

Ethics committee: Institutional Review Board / Ethics Committee (IRB/EC). Approval number: IRB.91/GMC, dated October 29, 2024.

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