Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare (Aug 2022)

COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Associated Factors Among College Students in Dessie City, Northeastern Ethiopia

  • Berihun G,
  • Walle Z,
  • Teshome D,
  • Berhanu L,
  • Derso M

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 1735 – 1746

Abstract

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Gete Berihun,1,* Zebader Walle,2,* Daniel Teshome,3,* Leykun Berhanu,1 Mohammed Derso4 1Department of Environmental Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Wollo University, Dessie, Ethiopia; 2Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia; 3Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Wollo University, Dessie, Ethiopia; 4Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Wollo University, Dessie, Ethiopia*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Gete Berihun; Daniel Teshome, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: The COVID-19 vaccine is regarded as an effective measure for reducing the pandemic’s impact. But, COVID-19 disease burden reduction efforts are being affected by the rising vaccine resistance.Objective: To assess the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and associated factors among college students in Dessie city, Northeastern Ethiopia.Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was carried out among college students in Dessie town from July 1– 20, 2021. The association between independent and dependent variables was assessed by binary logistic regression analysis using crude odds ratio and adjusted odds ratio. Variables having p values of less than 0.05 at the 95% confidence interval were regarded as potential determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.Results: A total of 422 college students participated in the study with a response rate of 95.6%. More than half 226 (56.2%) of the participants had willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccine. Respondents who had history of chronic medical illness (AOR: 4.340, 95% CI: 1.166, 16.149), training on COVID-19 vaccine (AOR: 4.755, 95% CI: 2.606, 6.674), history of regular vaccine uptake (AOR: 2.534, 95% CI: 1.412, 4.549), perception of COVID-19 severity (AOR: 4.109, 95% CI: 2.190, 7.710), perception that COVID-19 can be prevented by vaccine (AOR: 2.420, 95% CI: 1.160, 5.049), and development of herd immunity against COVID-19 vaccines (AOR: 2.566, 95% CI: 1.431, 4.599) were factors significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.Conclusion: The acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among college students was low. The history of chronic medical illness, training on COVID-19 vaccine, history of vaccine uptake, perception that COVID-19 can be prevented by vaccine, perception of herd immunity development against COVID-19, and severity of COVID 19 infection were factors significantly associated with the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine. Hence, it is necessary to promote COVID-19 vaccination among college students through health education and vaccine outreach.Keywords: COVID-19, vaccine, acceptance, college students, Ethiopia

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