Knowledge, Atitude and Uptake of COVID-19 Vaccine among Undergradute Students in Southern Nigeria

Aim: The study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude, and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among undergraduate students in a tertiary institution in Southern Nigeria.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study

Place and Duration of Study: Rivers State University, June, 2022

Method: A validated self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on the knowledge, attitude, and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among 410 undergraduate students. The data collected was analyzed with the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) v25 software at a 95% confidence interval.

Results: The study showed that only 16.5% of the students indicated willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine, while 95.1% had a good knowledge of COVID-19. It was also observed that 75.1% of the students had good knowledge of the COVID-19 vaccine, while only 50.7% of the students had good/positive attitude to the COVID-19 vaccine and 49.3% of the students had a poor attitude to the COVID-19 vaccine. Regression analysis showed that Male gender was 1.5 times (95% C.I; 0.8 – 2.6) more likely to take the vaccine, while persons that had a comfortable income level were 1.6 times (95% C.I; 0.9 – 2.7) more likely to take the vaccine. It was also observed that good knowledge of COVID-19 was significantly associated with the willingness to take the vaccine (Chi-square = 6.80, p = 0.009). The findings of the study showed that the high level of good knowledge of COVID-19 did not correspond with the willingness to take the vaccine among the students.

Conclusion: The poor attitude towards the vaccine is relatively high among the students, making it imperative for an improved awareness on the vaccine safety and efficacy among undergraduate students to improve vaccine coverage and reach some sort of herd immunity for the COVID-19 viral infection in the country