Misconceptions and Acceptability of Covid-19 Vaccines among Residents of Osogbo Community in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease (COVID 19), an emerging infectious disease, poses complex challenges to global public health. Vaccines are now available, but misconceptions and myths brew poor knowledge, hence hesitancy to get vaccinated. The aim of this work is to assess the misconceptions and acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines among residents of Osogbo community, Nigeria. It was a community-based descriptive cross-sectional study of 420 subjects. Data was collected with semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire, and analyzed using SPSS version 25. The mean age was 24.7±6.5years and 57.4%(n=241) were females. All 420 participants have heard about COVID-19, mostly through Television (94.3%, n=396). About two third 276(65.7%) had good knowledge. More than half 248(59.1%) had positive attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination. Close to half (48.2%, n=202) would like to be vaccinated when the vaccines are available. Close to half (46.8%, n=197) were willing to accept the vaccine. Common misconceptions about covid-19 vaccine were reported with age, marital status, and educational background found to be statistically significant with positive knowledge about COVID-19 (p value<0.05). Also, respondent's employment status and religion were statistically significant with knowledge about COVID-19 vaccine (p value<0.05). People that were educated were two times more likely to have good acceptance than the uneducated (OR: 2.75, CI: 1.31-5.74, p 0.003). The study concluded that misconceptions are common. This calls for enlightenment campaign by stakeholders to reach the entire community in the study area, using appropriate communication strategies informed by the findings of this and other studies.