Prevalence and Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in South East Asia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 1,166,275 Respondents

Despite its importance in guiding public health decisions, studies on COVID-19 vaccination acceptance and its determinants in South East Asia (SEA) are lacking. Therefore, this study aims to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and the variables influencing the vaccine’s acceptance. This review is registered under PROSPERO CRD42022352198. We included studies that reported vaccination acceptance from all SEA countries, utilising five academic databases (Pubmed, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, and Google Scholar), three Indonesian databases (the Indonesian Scientific Journal Database, Neliti, and Indonesia One Search), two pre-print databases (MedRxiv and BioRxiv), and two Thailand databases (ThaiJo and Thai-Journal Citation Index). The analysis was conducted using STATA 17.0 with metaprop commands. The prevalence for COVID-19 vaccination acceptance in SEA was 71% (95%CI 69–74; I2 99.87%, PI: 68.6–73.5). Myanmar achieved the highest COVID-19 vaccination acceptance prevalence, with 86% (95%CI 84–89), followed by Vietnam with 82% (95% CI 79–85; I2 99.04%) and Malaysia with 78% (95%CI 72–84; I2 99.88%). None of the ten determinants studied (age, sex, education, previous COVID-19 infections, smoking and marriage status, health insurance, living together, chronic diseases, and healthcare workers) were significantly associated with acceptance. This result will be useful in guiding vaccination uptake in SEA.