What is the extent of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Bangladesh? : A cross-sectional rapid national survey

objectives

To assess COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Bangladesh and identify population subgroups with higher odds of vaccine hesitancy.

design

A nationally representative cross-sectional survey was used. Univariate analysis was employed to compute vaccine hesitancy proportions and compare them across groups and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to compute the adjusted odds ratio.

setting

Bangladesh

participants

A total of 1134 participants from the general population, aged 18 years and above.

outcome measures

Prevalence and predictors of vaccine hesitancy.

results

32.5% of participants showed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Hesitancy was high among respondents who were males, over age 60, unemployed, from low-income families, from central Bangladesh including Dhaka, living in rented houses, tobacco users, politically affiliated, participants who did not believe in the vaccine’s effectiveness for Bangladeshis and those who did not have any physical illnesses in the last year. In the multilevel logistic regression models, respondents who were transgender (AOR= 3.62), married (AOR=1.49), tobacco users (AOR=1.33), those who did not get any physical illnesses in the last year (AOR=1.49), those with political affiliations with opposition parties (AOR= 1.48), those who believed COVID-19 vaccines will not be effective for Bangladeshis (AOR= 3.20), and those who were slightly concerned (AOR = 2.87) or not concerned at all (AOR = 7.45) about themselves or a family member getting infected with COVID-19 in the next one year were significantly associated with vaccine hesitancy (p < 0.05).

conclusions

Given the high prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, it is important to promote evidence-based communication, mass media campaigns, and policy initiatives across Bangladesh to reduce vaccine hesitancy among the Bangladeshi population.

Strengths and Limitations of the study

• This study is the first its kind to measure COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Bangladesh.

• In this study, randomly selected participants were interviewed face to face, enabling a nearly true representative sample of the Bangladeshi general population.

• This study identified a wide range of sub-groups of the general population with higher odds of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy relating to their sociodemographic characteristics in Bangladesh; thus, providing baseline evidence for the low and middle-income and low-resourced countries worldwide.

• Traditional media and social media influence on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was not measured which is a major limitation of this study.