ABSTRACT
Background Covid-19 has unquantifiable negative impacts on the world's socio-economic parameters. The rapid discovery of vaccines to fight this pandemic is a monumental scientific breakthrough. Study objective The study assessed willingness of adult Nigerians to accept Covid-19 vaccine and elucidated on factors influencing such decisions. Methodology Cross-sectional design was employed among 400 respondents recruited using multi-stage random sampling technique in Ilorin, Kwara-State, Nigeria. Pretested interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out. Results Mean age ±SD of respondents was 40.85±13.75 and 215 (53.7%) of them were males. Those who possessed good knowledge of Covid-19 were 321 (80.3%), but few respondents had misconceptions regarding its causation. Attitude to Covid-19 vaccination was positive in 360 (90%) of the respondents, 278 (69.5%) were willing to accept the vaccine. Respondents' Covid-19 knowledge and attitude to its vaccination were the main determinants of willingness to receive the vaccine. Conclusion The Nigerian government urgently needs to leverage on the positive attitude of the people to fully implement its covid-19 vaccination policies which can ensure effective coverage and equitable access to the revolutionary Covid-19 vaccines. Awareness campaign on practice of other preventive measures should be sustained to produce a synergistic control effort
Subject(s)
Patient Acceptance of Health Care , Pandemics , COVID-19ABSTRACT
Background: The burden of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is assuming an epidemic proportion globally, causing grave hepatic and other complications. Mother-to-child transmission is one of the main ways of acquiring the disease. It is thus incumbent on researchers to delve more into the epidemiology of HBV. The objectives of this study is to assess respondents’ knowledge on HBV, estimated the burden of the disease among pregnant women attending antennal clinics in Ogbomoso, Nigeria and identified significant determinants of HBV positive status of the participants.Methods: This facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 168 pregnant women recruited using systematic random technique. Pretested interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out.Results: Mean age of the respondents was 34±10 years, 90.5% of the respondents were 20-40 years old. HBV awareness level among the respondents was 51.8% and more than half (59.5%) of them possessed poor knowledge of the virus. Twelve percent (12.0%) of the respondents were seropositive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Significant determinants of HBsAg positivity were; Level of education (AOR=0.11, CI=1.56-3.47), Socio-economic class (AOR=3.23, CI=1.48-3.02) and family type (AOR=4.51, CI=0.19-0.35).Conclusions: The burden of HBV was high among pregnant women in the study population. Awareness and knowledge of the respondent was low. Authors recommend aggressive awareness campaigns on the disease. Improving the socio-economic conditions of women will go a long way in reducing the scourge of this dreadful disease in Nigeria.