Community Insights Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Intention versus Hesitancy (original) (raw)

COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy or Acceptance and Its Associated Factors: Findings from Post-Vaccination Cross-Sectional Survey from Punjab Pakistan

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

COVID-19 has posed massive challenges related to health, economy, and the social fabric of the entire human population. To curb the spread of the virus, the Government of Pakistan initiated a vaccination campaign against COVID-19. The objective of this research was to assess the factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance or hesitancy. The data were collected telephonically using a cross-sectional survey design through a close-ended structured questionnaire from a sample of 1325 vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals with a response rate of 38%. SPSS v. 26 was used to analyze the data. The study revealed that 73% of the respondents were male, half in the 40–49 age group, 78% living in urban areas, and 45% had a monthly income between 20,001–50,000 Pakistani rupees. People felt reluctant to get vaccinated because of myths and misinformation related to it. The socio-demographic factors including male, age 60–69, middle or higher level of education, marital status, currently...

Vaccine hesitancy and intention to take the vaccine: attitude of general public towards COVID-19 vaccination

Journal of Rawalpindi Medical College, 2021

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the gender-based differences in factors responsible for hesitancy and acceptance towards-19 the COVID-19 vaccination among the general public residing in different cities of Pakistan.Material and Methods: This cross-sectional comparative study was conducted among the general public residing in different cities of Pakistan. Data was collected from15th April to 30th April 2021. The estimated sample size was found to be 380, convenience sampling was used for data collection. The Chi-square test was applied to find gender-based differences in reasons responsible for refusal and uptake of vaccination. P-value < 0.05 was taken as significant. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 26.0.Results: Out of the total of 380 participants, 101(27%) were males and 279(73%) were females. Significant motives for vaccine uptake include family and friend recommendations, helping society to get back to normal again (75%), and health care recom...

Perception, Willingness, Barriers, and Hesistancy Towards COVID-19 Vaccine in Pakistan: Comparison Between Healthcare Workers and General Population

Cureus, 2021

Background Vaccine hesitancy has been a huge challenge in controlling preventable diseases. With the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, it is vital to know their acceptance rates among the masses. No comparative data is available on the current subject from Pakistan yet. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the acceptance of a potential COVID-19 vaccine among the general population and healthcare workers (HCWs) of Pakistan, along with their perceptions and barriers to acceptance. Methods An online cross-sectional study was carried out in Pakistan from December 19, 2020, to January 10, 2021, using convenience sampling. A self-administered questionnaire consisting of 31 items was distributed after informed consent. Inclusion criteria consisted of HCWs and non-HCWs (general population) aged 18 years and above, residing in Pakistan. All analyses were done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Chi-square and T-test were used and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant for all cases. Results Of the 404 respondents (n=196 general population and n=208 HCWs), 73.5% were willing to get a proven, safe, and effective COVID-19 vaccine if it was free of cost. This was reduced to only 64.3% if the vaccine was not free and had to be paid for. A total of 168 (41.6%) participants agreed to get vaccinated immediately, while 149 (36.9%) participants concurred to get it on a delayed basis. Eighty-seven (21.5%) participants refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, amongst which a significant majority (p<0.001) of the participants were from the general population. Doctors or scientists/scholarly journals were found to be the most trusted source of information (67.6%; n=273), while fear of unknown side effects (45.5%; n=184) was found to be the most common barrier towards COVID-19 vaccination. More than half (53.5%) participants believed that the vaccine is safe, effective, and has minimal side effects, amongst which a significantly large fraction (p<0.001) belonged to the HCWs. Conclusion The acceptance rate of a safe, effective, proven, and free COVID-19 vaccine was 73.5%. The fear of unknown side effects was the most common barrier to COVID-19 vaccine uptake. The general population demonstrated less knowledge, more false perceptions, and barriers to COVID-19 vaccine. Adequate measures should be taken to educate the masses about the COVID-19 vaccine, and its safety, and further studies are required.

Reasons and Sources of Hesitancy Against COVID-19 Vaccine: A Cross-Sectional Study among General Public in Pakistan

Pakistan Journal of Medical and Health Sciences

Introduction:Since Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory infection which is transmitted by respiratory droplets, it has now spread all across the globe. There are various myths and misconceptions about this vaccination that act as a prime barrier to vaccinate majority of the population. Methods: A cross-sectional-study was performed from all over Punjab province using convenience sampling technique. A sample size of 400 was gathered in this study by o digital and hardcopy questionnaires after the participants gave their consent. Results: The willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19, was only 28.0% while the greater remainder of 72% opted for ‘no’ or ‘maybe’. Our study prevailed that the most common reason of hesitancy among the population was that vaccine can cause blood to clot and people may die (15.6%). And the most frequent source emerged to be social media by 23%. Discussion: The study revealed that people with no or low educational status were more uncertain or...

Acceptance Rates and Beliefs toward COVID-19 Vaccination among the General Population of Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Survey

The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Developing countries like Pakistan have previously suffered from barriers to acceptance of vaccination by the public because of financial and belief barriers. This study aims to explore these beliefs and highlight concerns regarding vaccine hesitancy in the general population of Pakistan since they are a hindrance to an effective coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) immunization in the country. A cross-sectional study was performed involving 1,778 participants from all four provinces of Pakistan. Results from the study showed more than half of the participants to be unsure of the safety (50%) and efficacy (51%) of the vaccine, whereas 42% were concerned about the side effects of the vaccine. About 72% of the respondents planned to get vaccinated, whereas 28% refused to do so. Internationally made imported vaccines were more trusted by the participants. Forty-four percent of the participants agreed to receive the vaccine upon recommendation from a physician. Lastly, participants who bel...

Covid-19 Vaccine Acceptance, Intention to Participate and its Associated Adverse Events Happening among the Vaccinated Population of Lahore, Pakistan

Pakistan Journal of Medical and Health Sciences

Background: This cross-sectional study being instrumented by a close ended questionnaire was conducted to evaluate society’s affirmation for being jabbed with COVID-19 vaccine, their acquisition towards immunization and associated anomalies in vaccinated people. According to the recent update from WHO, the glob is facing 5th wave of pandemic “Omicron”. However, the problem is that vaccines were in trials. Majority of people were demonstrating reluctance for being immunization against COVID-19 due prevailing oddities after vaccination. Aim: To measure the possible adverse effects caused by the vaccination and society’s participation towards immunization. Methodology: In this study we adapted cross sectional study design by means of convenience sampling. Study instrument was a close ended questionnaire. Data was collected from only vaccinated participants by visiting universities, medical personnel, colleges and other society sectors under the supervision of team members. Data transfe...

Survey data of public in Sindh Pakistan regarding willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination

PLOS ONE

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic has badly affected the world with its devastating effects, including Sindh, Pakistan. A massive vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is considered one of the effective ways to curtail the spread of the disease. However, the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine is based on the general population’s knowledge, attitude, perception and willingness for vaccination. Therefore, a survey among the public in Sindh, Pakistan, was done to evaluate their knowledge, attitude, perception and willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination. Method The online survey was conducted among the residents of Sindh, Pakistan, in July 2021 through a survey tool designed using Google Forms and sent to the population through various social media. Results Of 926 study participants, 59.0% were male, and 68.6% were aged between 18 and 31 years. Higher percentages of responses were recorded from the Hyderabad division (37.5%), and 60.0% of respondents were graduates, with 34.8% of th...

COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy and Associated Factors among Pakistani Population

Review of Applied Management and Social Sciences, 2021

COVID-19 pandemic has caused global healthcare and economic crises and mass vaccination to acquire herd immunity seem to be the only solution. Present study aimed to evaluate the intent of Pakistani population towards vaccination and to uncover the barriers associated with vaccine reluctance. This cross-sectional study included responses of 855 Pakistani residents. Respondents’ knowledge of COVID-19 infection, intent of vaccination and barriers towards vaccine refusal were evaluated. Participants were categorized on the basis of knowledge score, risk of disease and other demographic characteristics. Descriptive statistics were used for calculating frequencies and percentages, means and Chi-square test was utilized for cross-tabulation. A multinomial logistic regression model was executed to identify the predictors of vaccination intention. Significance level was set at the p-value of ? 0.05. Prevalence of vaccine refusal was 40%. COVID-19 vaccine is not Halal, negative propaganda on...

Demographic Factors Associated with Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccination: An Online Survey-Based Study from Hyderabad Sindh

BioSight, 2021

Background: COVID19 is a major threat to global health. World health organization has proposed use of vaccines against COVID19 to end the pandemic. Due to low literacy rate in many developing countries and disinformation, the population is reluctant for COVID19 vaccination. To explore the demographic factors associated with acceptance of COVID19 vaccination, we set up an online cross-sectional study. Methods: The online survey-based cross-sectional study was conducted to understand the demographic factors of residents of Hyderabad city associated with vaccine acceptance. The questionnaire was divided into sections to get sociodemographic characters and other information related with willingness of vaccination. This questionnaire was sent to 300 people from which 205 people participated. Results: The result showed that 28.8% of the participants were not sure to get vaccination of COVID-19, while 41.5% participants were willing to get vaccine if available; rest of the people (29.8%) w...

Vaccine Acceptance and Hesitancy among Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in Punjab, Pakistan

Vaccines

Vaccine hesitancy is widespread in many parts of the globe, particularly in low–middle-income countries. Therefore, we surveyed a sample of hospitalized COVID-19 patients to assess COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and vaccine hesitancy in a low–middle-income country. A cross-sectional sample of 385 confirmed reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 patients treated at secondary and tertiary care hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan, were analyzed to assess COVID-19 vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy. The construct validity and reliability of the 11-item vaccine hesitancy questionnaire were also examined. In addition, multivariate logistic regression was used. The majority of the COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals were not vaccinated (84%). Of those who were willing to receive vaccination, the majority (55%) considered vaccines an effective way to protect people from COVID-19. However, those who were not willing to receive their COVID-19 vaccine had significantly higher he...