COVID-19 vaccine attitude and its predictors among people living with chronic health conditions in Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract
Background
Globally COVID-19 has caused death among millions of people and new cases continue to be reported daily, including in Nigeria. With the efforts of the Nigerian government to ensure everyone gets vaccinated, the vaccination attitude and its predictors among persons with chronic health conditions remains unclear. The study was therefore conducted to assess vaccination attitude and determine its associated factors among people living with chronic health conditions.
Methods
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 patients attending the medical outpatient clinic of University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria; before COVID-19 vaccination commencement. Data were collected on socio-demographic and COVID-19 related characteristics, via Open Data Kit (ODK) software. The Vaccine Attitude Examination (Vax) Scale including its four subscales was adopted to assess attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine uptake. The main outcome was vaccine attitude status defined as positive if a VAX sum score was above the median value; otherwise, non-positive’. Data were analysed using Chi-square and multivariate logistic regression analyses at 5% significance level.
Results
Hypertension (27.4%), diabetes mellitus (22.0%) and heart conditions/diseases (19.6%) were the top three conditions being managed by the participants. The overall proportion of patients with a positive attitude towards the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination was 46.6%; while 29.6% trusted the vaccine benefit, 46.6% were not worried about the aftermath effect of the vaccine and 11.1% were not concerned about the vaccine commercial profiteering. Factors associated with overall vaccine attitude were level of education, income, knowledge of COVID-19, living room arrangement, and confidence in government (p<0.05). The main influential factor on general vaccine positive attitude and the four subscales was confidence in the government.
Conclusion
Less than half of people living with a chronic medical condition had a positive attitude towards the COVID vaccine. The attitudes are mediated strongly by confidence in the government and several sociodemographic and COVID related characteristics. A lot still needs to be done to achieve the prescribed herd immunity.
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