Willingness To Take The COVID-19 Vaccine: Motivator And Barrier Factors Associated With Vaccine Acceptance Decision Among Healthcare Students Of India

ABSTRACT

Background: Healthcare students are among the group of frontline healthcare providers being exposed to COVID-19. As future healthcare providers, they will be responsible for recommending vaccination to their future patients and entrusted with counseling to their future vaccine-hesitant patients. Thus, it is very important to achieve high COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rates in these groups. This study aims to explore the level of the acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine among healthcare students in India and determine the motivators and barriers factors that may affect vaccine acceptance decision-making. Method(s) After the second wave of the pandemic in 2021, an online cross-sectional questionnaire survey study was carried out among the intended population in many states of India. Bivariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression models were utilized to describe and formulate the frequency of all the variables, including the sociodemographic characteristics, and the factors associated with vaccine acceptance and hesitancy. Result(s) Among 596 respondents, 89.3% would willing to get accept a COVID-19 vaccine. Urban students were 2.5 times more willing to take vaccines compared to rural students. Motivator factors behind the willingness to get vaccinated were to know someone who had COVID-19 and wanted to protect own selves from COVID-19 (87.1%). Concerns regarding the COVID-19 vaccine's side effects (50%), poor vaccine efficacy (48.4%), unduly rapid vaccine development (39.1%), belief regarding the non-existence of COVID-19 (32%), and insufficient information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine's benefits (28.1%) as some of the possible barrier factors associated with hesitancy. Conclusion(s)The results highlight the need for an evidence-based educational interventional curriculum to provide adequate information regarding the Vaccine's safety/efficacy, promote uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine, and alleviate any fear/disbelief associated with the COVID-19 vaccine. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.