Open AccessHesitancy of Covid-19 Vaccination among Health Workers (other than Doctors) in a Tertiary Hospital in South-South, Nigeria
Author(s) -
Peter Chibuzor Oriji,
Dennis O. Allagoa,
T. J. Wagio,
Lukman Obagah,
E. S. Tekenah,
Peter Chibuzor Oriji
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
asian journal of research in infectious diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2582-3221
DOI - 10.9734/ajrid/2021/v7i130207
Subject(s) - medicine , vaccination , family medicine , quarter (canadian coin) , pandemic , cross sectional study , covid-19 , health care , population , descriptive statistics , disease , environmental health , infectious disease (medical specialty) , geography , virology , statistics , mathematics , archaeology , pathology , economic growth , economics
Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disease of the respiratory system that is caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on the 11th of March, 2020.
Objective: To assess the reasons behind the low turnout of health workers (other than doctors) for COVID-19 vaccination in the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
Materials and Methods: This study was carried out at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa between 1st and 23rd April, 2021. It was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of 182 health workers (excluding doctors) from all departments/units in the hospital. The data were collected with a predesigned questionnaire, and were analysed using IBM SPSS 23.0 version.
Results: About three-quarter were females (74.7%), and close to half were aged ≤35 years (47.8%). The respondents were Nurses, Pharmacists, Medical laboratory scientists, and Non-clinical officers. Only 27.4% took the vaccine. Most of those who refused the vaccine did so because they wanted to see what would happen to those who received the vaccine (70.5%). Others felt the vaccine has not gone through enough clinical trials (62.1%).
Conclusion: In this study, there was very poor turnout of health workers for COVID-19 vaccination. The factors that influenced acceptance of the vaccine were mainly COVID-19 related features. These findings suggest that people who have had personal experiences with the disease have a better understanding of the gravity of the situation, and hence are more likely to accept vaccination against the disease.