Promoting Compliance to COVID-19 Vaccination in Military Units

Abstract

Background: On December 27th, 2020, the Israeli Defense Forces initiated a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign aiming to vaccinate its personnel. This population upheld specific characteristics in terms of age and sex, lack of significant comorbidities, and a general scarcity of risk factors for sustaining a severe COVID-19 illness. We present the measures taken to increase vaccination compliance, and the vaccination rate that followed these actions. Our secondary goal was to compare between vaccination rates in frontline battalions and highly essential military units (group A) and rear administration and support military units (group B).

Methods: This was a retrospective review that included 70 military units that were composed of 18,719 individuals of both sexes, mostly free of significant comorbidities. We divided the challenges of maximizing vaccination rates into two main categories: vaccine compliance (including communication and information) and logistical challenges. We compared the vaccination rates in groups A and B using a multivariable linear regression model. A P-value of .05 was considered significant.

Results: The mean age in 70 military units was 22.77 ± 1.35 (range 18-50) years, 71.13% males. A total of 726 (3.88%) individuals have been found positive for SARS-CoV-2 between March 1st, 2020 and February 18th, 2021. On February 18th, 2021, 54 days after the vaccination campaign was launched, 15,871 (84.79%) of the study population have been vaccinated by the first dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, expressing an 88.21% compliance rate (excluding recovered COVID-19 cases who were not prioritized to be vaccinated at this stage). Vaccination compliance in military units from group A was found to be higher when compared to group B (P < .001), leading to a 90.02% of group A population being either previously SARS-CoV-2 positive or COVID-19 vaccinated.

Conclusions: A designated army campaign led by a multidisciplinary team could rapidly achieve a high COVID-19 vaccination rate. The information presented can serve organizations worldwide with similar characteristics that plan a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign.