Covid-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Population in Gambella Town, South West Ethiopia. Cross -Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Globally it is anticipated that vaccination of the population with effective and safe vaccine would prevent the transmission of COVID 19 virus among community. The community has a low level of trust in vaccine efficacy and high hesitancy. However, the evidence from some studies around the world report determinants of COVID 19 vaccine acceptance variation from place to place. Little known is about the determinants of Covid-19 Vaccine acceptance in Gambella region, southwest Ethiopia Objective: To assess the determinants of covid-19 vaccine acceptance the age of 12 years old and above in Gambella town, south west Ethiopia. Methods: Cross sectional study design was conducted. Case was a participant who is eligible for COVID 19 vaccination and Control was a participant who is not eligible for COVID 19 vaccination and living in the area for the last six months prior to study. The total Sample Size is 266 individuals (90 vaccine acceptance and 176 non vaccine acceptance). Study participants were selected by using Multi-stage sampling techniques. An interviewer administered to face to face structured questionnaire which is adapted from studies done on similar topics were used to collected data. The data were entered and cleaned using Epi data version 3.1. Analyzed by using SPSS version 25. Variables that had a P-value < 0.25 in the bivariate logistic regression analysis were entered into a multivariable logistic regression model. Finally, p-value < 0.05 was used to claim statistical significance. Result: The mean and standard deviation (± SD) of 29.60 and ± 13.46 for Cases and 31.48 and 14.51 for Controls respectively. Vaccinated against any disease (AOR=1.114, 95% CI: (0.443-2.80) were found to be the determinants for Covid-19 vaccine acceptance. Conclusion: Most of the factors influencing covid-19 vaccine acceptance have been shown to be controllable. Thus, it is planning to address hesitancy of covid-19 vaccine acceptance and increase the awareness of vaccinated against any disease, are recommended.