The knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions toward the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine amongst Primary Health care workers in North-Central Trinidad.

Aim: To determine the effects of knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of primary care health workers toward receiving the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in North Central, Trinidad. Methods: A pretested de novo questionnaire containing forty-eight (48) closed ended questions and one (1) open ended question was used to gather data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data obtained from the questionnaire. These included percentages, means and standard deviations for the descriptive aspect and the Chi-Square test to examine any significant associations. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to assess any significant differences in means among several categories and the independent samples t-test for assessing any significant difference in means between two categories. Results: 273 respondents completed the questionnaire. Most of the participants (72.2%) were female and within the age range 25-36 (56.0%). The mean knowledge score about the AstraZeneca vaccine was 16.28 (SD = 2.28) out of 19 with an overall correct response rate of 79%. 30.4% of participants had a good attitude score and 59.7% had a positive perception toward the AstraZeneca vaccine. There were significant associations between knowledge and marital status (p = 0.001), income level (p = 0.001), education level (p < 0.001), and length of employment (p = 0.041); attitudes and sex (p = 0.01), age (p = 0.04), marital status (p = 0.009), income level (p < 0.001), education level (p = 0.005) and category of staff (p < 0.001); perception and sex (p = 0.002), marital status (p = 0.027), income level (p < 0.001), and category of staff (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The main contributors to vaccine hesitancy were inadequate duration of clinical trials and fear of adverse side effects. A significant number of participants (17%) were unwilling to get the vaccine due to lack of information.

Positive influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on community dwelling adults in Trinidad and Tobago: a cross sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Since the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic its negative effects have been highlighted globally. There is little literature that examines the positive impact on daily living. AIMS: To examine the positive influences of government-imposed COVID-19 public health restrictions on adults throughout Trinidad and Tobago (TT) and their associated factors. METHOD: A cross-sectional study, using an adapted pretested online survey instrument, was conducted amongst non-institutionalised, community-dwelling adults using convenience sampling. RESULTS: Of 1287 completed and weighted responses, the mean age (S.D.) was 39.2 (14.6) years, 49% were males, and 61% completed secondary level education. The top 5 positive experiences were more time spent with family (80%), more down-time (78%), learning new skills (68%), more time for hobbies (66%), self-care (57%), more time spent with friends (55%) and eating healthier (50%). The importance of religion, working from home, and an increase in marijuana use emerged as positive correlates for certain positive experiences, while participants with chronic illness, and a positive anxiety or depression screen, were negatively associated with most positive experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the negative consequences of the COVID19 pandemic, several positives were highlighted in this study. These findings have implications for social policies toward building resilience within the community.

2020 family medicine postgraduate examinations at The University of the West Indies: successes and challenges in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.

Little has been published regarding postgraduate assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need to graduate well-trained specialists including family physicians who play a key role in patient care. The successes and challenges encountered in mounting qualifying 2020 Family Medicine examinations during the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of the West Indies are described in this paper. Human resource, planning, use of technology and virtual environments are discussed, which enabled successful examinations at this multicampus regional site.