Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among adults in two Urban local government areas of Kwara State, North Central Nigeria

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