Assessment Of COVID-19 Vaccine UptakeAmong Residents Of Urban AndSemi-urban Communities In Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Nigeria has had poor COVID-19 vaccine uptake as a result of vaccine hesitancy, vaccine mistrust and government  mismanagement of the initial COVID-19 outbreak management. It was therefore, important to assess the knowledge, attitudes towards,  level of uptake and determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among residents of New Benin Community and Ovbiogie Communities in Benin City in order to guide future vaccine campaigns.

Methods: The study was carried out among 1,310 respondents in New Benin and  Ovbiogie communities in Benin City using a descriptive cross-sectional design and multi stage sampling technique. An adapted  intervieweradministered questionnaire was used to for data collection. Sample size was calculated using a p of 0.79 and 0.70 and data  analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS version 25.0 software and p < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: This study revealed a high  proportion of respondents 509 (77.4%) in Ovbiogie community had good knowledge of COVID-19 vaccine while majority of respondents 603 (92.5%) had good knowledge of COVID19 vaccines in New Benin community. Two-thirds of respondents 396 (66.0%) in  New Benin had positive attitude towards COVID-19 vaccines while about half 333 (52.3%) had positive towards COVID-19 vaccines in  Ovbiogie community. About one-fifth 123 (18.7%) of respondents in Ovbiogie community had ever taken the vaccines, while less than one  tenth 48 (7.4%) had ever received the vaccines in New Benin community of which. Level of education, skill level, social class,  knowledge of and attitude towards COVID-19 vaccines were significantly associated with uptake of COVID-19 vaccine in both  communities.

Conclusion: Knowledge of COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines was good in both communities however the uptake of the  vaccine was higher in Ovbiogie than in New Benin community. Over half of the respondents who had not taken the vaccine was as a  result of inadequate information about the vaccine.