Knowledge about covid-19 disease and acceptance of covid-19 vaccines among undergraduates of a federal university in south- south Nigeria
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Following the covid-19 outbreak in Hubei, China in December 2019, efforts were made to decrease transmission rates and contain the spread of the virus, using the newly developed covid-19 vaccines. The aim of this study was to explore the knowledge about, and acceptance of covid-19 vaccines among undergraduates of a federal university in Nigeria.
Objectives: The study assessed the knowledge of undergraduates about covid-19 and their willingness to take covid-19 vaccine.
Methods: The study adopted a descriptive, quantitative approach with a study population of 2450 undergraduates in the halls of residence. Participants were selected using a non-probability convenience sampling technique calculated based on the assumption of a 50% vaccine acceptance rate, a 5% margin of error and a confidence interval of 95%. A validated 30 item self-structured questionnaire collecting data on demographics, knowledge of covid-19, its vaccines, vaccine coverage and willingness to take the covid-19 vaccine was administered in person to the respondents. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21 to obtain the frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation of data collected. Ethical approval was gotten from the management of the University and Informed consent was also obtained from the respondents.
Results: There were 332 respondents, made up of 169 females. Knowledge level was relatively high as indicated by almost 100% on covid-19 and 99.4% on the vaccines. Results also indicated low covid-19 vaccination coverage as only 3.9% had taken the vaccine and 44.3% of respondents indicated refusal to take the vaccine.
Conclusion: This study reported low covid-19 vaccination coverage with high refusal of respondents on acceptance of the vaccine. There is need to increase awareness about covid-19 vaccine (and other vaccines generally) as this will increase vaccination and promote safety.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
World Health Organization. Coronavirus disease (Covid-2019) Dashboard (2023). https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel
-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports. (Accessed February 17th, 2023).
Zhang L. and Liu Y. (2020) potential intervention for novel coronavirus in China: A systematic review. Journal of Medical Virology 92: 479-490.
Leon Caly, Julian DD, Mike GC, David AJ, Kylie MW (2020) The FDA-approved Drug invermectin inhibits the replication of SARSCoV-2 in vitro. Antiviral Research. 178: 104787.
Dong L., Hu S., Gao J. (2020) Discovering drugs to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Drug Discovery Therapeutics 14: 58-60.
Wang M., Cao R., Zhang L. (2020) Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro. Cell Research. 30: 269-271.
Cynthia L., Qiongqiong Z., Yingzhu L., Linda VG, Steve P.W. (2020) Research and development on therapeutic agents and vaccines for COVID-19 and Related Human Coronavirus Diseases. American Chemical Society (ACS) Central Science. 6: 315-331.
Lazarus JV, Ratzan SC, Palayew A., Gostin, LO, Larson HJ, Rabin K., Kimball S. and El-Mohandes A.(2021) A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID- 19 vaccine. Natural Medicine 27, 225-228
Conte C., Sogni F., Affanni P., Veronesi L., Argentiero A . , Esposi to S . (2020) Vaccinesa gainst Coronaviruses: The State of the Art Vaccines; 8, 309-321.
Jackson LA, Anderson EJ, Rouphael NG (2020). An mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV2 preliminary report. New England Journal of Medicine.
;383:1-7.
Borriello D., Master A., Pellegrini and JM Rose (2021) "Preferences for a covid-19 vaccine in Australia." Vaccine, 15; 39(3) : 473-479.
Osahon PT and Oaikhena VE (2018). Clinical students' knowledge and perception of Lassa fever in University of Benin, Nigeria. Journal of Pharmacy and Bioresources;15(1): 56-62.
Osahon PT and Olakunle FE (2021). Knowledge and Attitude to Ebola virus disease control among nonclinical students in a Nigerian University; Journal of Pharmaceutical and Allied Sciences; 18(1): 3396-3404.
Adeniran AO, Tayo-Ladega O. and Abdullahi TM (2022). A cross sectional study on the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine. Biomedical Journal of Sciences & Technical Research; 42(2), 7-12.
Barello S., Nania T., Dellafiore F., Graffigna G., and Caruso R. (2020). 'Vaccine hesitancy' among university students in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Epidemiology, 35(8), 781-783.
Adebisi Y.A., Alaran A.J., Bolarinwa O.A., AkandeSholabi W., Lucero-Prisno DE(2021).When it is available, will we take it? Social media users' perception of hypothetical covid-19 vaccine in Nigeria. Pan African Medicine Journal; 2;38:230.
Uzochukwu IC, Eleje GU, Nwankwo CH (2021) covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among staff and students in a Nigerian tertiary educational
institution. Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease;8, 45-52.
Ilesanmi O., Afolabi A., Kwaghe A. (2021) A scope review on the global impact of covid-19 lockdown on adolescents' health. African Health Sciences; 21(4):1518-1526.
Corbett KS, Edwards DK, Leist SR (2020). SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine design enabled by prototype pathogen preparedness. Nature;586:567
WHO-Africa (2021). covid-19 vaccines shipped by COVAX arrived in Nigeria [online]. Who- regional office Africa (2021). Available at: https://www.afro.who.int/news/Covid-19-vaccinesshipped-covax-arrive-nigeria (accessed: 20 June 2021)
The Premium Times Nigeria 2021. Nigeria hits 3.4m covid-19 vaccine jabs in 2 rounds-NPHCDA [online]. Available at:
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/470504-nigeria-hits-3-4m-covid-19-vaccine-jabsin-2-rounds-nphda.html (accessed: 20 June 2021)
Pastorino R., Villani L., Mariani M., Ricciardi W., Graffigna G., & Boccia S. (2021). Impact of COVID-19pandemic on flu and covid-19 vaccination intentions among university students. Vaccine; 9(2), 70-78