ABSTRACT
Because most Afghans are accustomed to the daily warnings of the government and the news of death and insecurity, this strategy was used to persuade them to follow health and government instructions.3 The first warnings made people panic before the outbreak escalated. The relevant centers gradually increased daily tests from 50 to 100 and finally 300 tests.3 The shortage of diagnosis kits has been one of the biggest problems in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. [...]4 May 2020, Afghanistan has done ~11,068 diagnostic tests (284 per 1 million population), which is one of the lowest rates among Asian countries.2 The high cost of diagnosis, lack of diagnostic kit production, shortage of skilled laboratory staff, inappropriate sampling, many problems in the transfer of samples, including lack of proper roads and low security due to the presence of ISIS and the Taliban, are other important problems preventing the diagnosis of this disease.3 Treatment To treat SARS-CoV-2–positive cases, the government built medical centers within the diagnostic centers to provide basic services to alleviate these patients’ complications. According to the WHO, Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world, with 9.4 skilled health professionals and 1.9 physicians, per 10,000 population.
ABSTRACT
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to plague the world. Hence, there is been an effort to mitigate this virus and its effects with several means including vaccination which is one of the most effective ways of controlling the virus. However, efforts at getting people to vaccinate have met several challenges. To help with understanding the reasons underlying an individual's willingness to take COVID-19 vaccine or not, a scale called Motors of COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance Scale (MoVac-COVID19S) was developed. To expand its usability worldwide (as it has currently been limited to only China and Taiwan), data were collected in other countries (regions) too. Therefore, this MoVac-COVID19S data is from five countries (that is, India, Ghana, Afghanistan, Taiwan, and mainland China) which cut across five regions. A total of 6053 participants across the stated countries completed the survey between January and March 2021 using a cross-sectional survey design. The different sections of the survey solicited sociodemographic information (e.g., country, age, gender, educational level, and profession) and the MoVac-COVID19S data from the participants. The data collected from this survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics, which were carried out using the IBM SPSS version 22.0.
ABSTRACT
Purpose The percentage of individuals who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 was 53% worldwide, 62% in Asia, and 11% in Africa at the time of writing (February 9, 2022). In addition to administrative issues, vaccine hesitancy is an important factor contributing to the relatively low rate of vaccination. The Motors of COVID-19 Vaccination Acceptance Scale (MoVac-COVID19S) was developed to assess COVID-19 vaccination acceptance levels. However, it has only been tested among Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, and Ghanaian populations (Chen et al, 2021;Fan et al, 2021;Yeh et al, 2021). Therefore, the present study examined the construct validity and measurement invariance of the MoVac-COVID19S among individuals from five countries (ie, Taiwan, mainland China, India, Ghana, and Afghanistan). Participants and Methods A cross-sectional survey study recruited 6053 participants across five countries who completed the survey between January and March 2021. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) fit indices were used to examine factor structure and measurement invariance across the five countries. Results The fit indices of the CFA were relatively good across the countries except for the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). Moreover, the four-factor structure (either nine or 12 items) had a better fit than the one-factor structure. However, the four-factor model using nine MoVac-COVID19S items was the only model that had measurement invariance support for both factor loadings and item intercepts across the five countries. Conclusion The present study confirmed that the MoVac-COVID19S has acceptable psychometric properties and can be used to assess an individual’s willingness to get COVID-19 vaccination.