COVID-19 Immunisation: Perception, Acceptance and Attitude of Ghanaian Students

Isaac Kwesi Acquah^1, , Desmond Appiah^1, , Victor Antwi¹, Michael Gyan¹, Fortune Addo-Wuver¹ and Cynthia Jebuni-Adanu¹

¹Faculty of Science Education, University of Education, Winneba-Ghana

Cite this paper:
Isaac Kwesi Acquah, Desmond Appiah, Victor Antwi, Michael Gyan, Fortune Addo-Wuver and Cynthia Jebuni-Adanu. COVID-19 Immunisation: Perception, Acceptance and Attitude of Ghanaian Students. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2023; 11(4):136-142. doi: 10.12691/ajphr-11-4-2

Abstract

One of the sectors that have been greatly affected by the 2019 pandemic coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was the various universities in Ghana. Universities were closed down for several months until strategically academic work resumed normalcy. COVID-19 immunisation is one of the best approaches to mitigate the spread of the novel disease. This process will increase the immunity of the students due to the extremely congested environments. For that matter, this study utilised a cross-sectional survey to assess the knowledge and attitudes of students toward vaccines in several Ghanaian universities. Reasons behind the refusal and acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccines were also ascertained. Descriptive, one-sample t-test and multinomial logistics regression statistics were used to analyse the data. Seven hundred and eighty-five (785) students from various universities in Ghana participated in this study. Respectively, 78.5% and 73.8% of the students were well informed about COVID-19 disease and COVID-19 vaccines. It can be concluded that information on social media significantly discouraged students from the COVID-19 immunisation process. The majority of students representing 63.1% were willing to receive the COVID-19 immunisation, compared to 36.3% of the students that exhibited negative attitudes toward the immunisation. The primary cause of non-compliance with the government-recommended immunisation schedule was the safety and side effects of the vaccines. It is recommended that additional advocacy initiatives be implemented at various universities to help address the numerous safety concerns students have regarding the COVID-19 immunisation and its side effects.

Keywords:
COVID-19 Ghana education public health immunisation perception and acceptance and attitude

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Zhu, H., L. Wei, and P. Niu, The novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. Global health research and policy, 2020. 5(1): p. 1-3.
[2]	WHO, W.H.O. WHO COVID-19 Dashboard. WHO Health Emergency Dashboard 2020 [cited 2022; Available from: https://covid19.who.int/.
[3]	GSS, G.S.S., Ghana 2021 population and housing census. 2021.
[4]	Ackah, B.B.B., et al., COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Africa: a scoping review. Global Health Research and Policy, 2022. 7(1): p. 21.
[5]	Worldometers.info. Ghana Population. 2022 [cited 2022 19 June, 2022]; Available from: Worldometers.info.
[6]	Lu, J., et al., Sensitivity to COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness and Safety in Shanghai, China. Vaccines (Basel), 2021. 9(5).
[7]	Viper, B.N.a.M.E.o.b.o.t. COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Approvals Tracker. (Vaccines, Infectious disease Prevention, and Epidemiology Research) Group COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Approvals Tracker Team 2020; Available from: http://covid19.trackvaccines.org/.
[8]	Cochran, W.G., Sampling Techniques, 3rd Edition., ed. J. Wiley. 1977.
[9]	Pallant, J., SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS. 2020: Routledge.
[10]	Plotkin, S.L. and S.A. Plotkin, A short history of vaccination. Vaccines, 2004. 5: p. 1-16.
[11]	Gallè, F., et al., Knowledge and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among undergraduate students from central and southern Italy. Vaccines, 2021. 9(6): p. 638.
[12]	Jennings, W., et al., Lack of Trust, Conspiracy Beliefs, and Social Media Use Predict COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy. Vaccines, 2021. 9(6): p. 593.
[13]	Jiang, N., et al., Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines among college students: a study of the attitudes, knowledge, and willingness of students to vaccinate. Hum Vaccin Immunother, 2021. 17(12): p. 4914-4924.
[14]	Paul, E., A. Steptoe, and D. Fancourt, Attitudes towards vaccines and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19: Implications for public health communications. The Lancet Regional Health-Europe, 2021. 1: p. 100012.
[15]	Al-Mohaithef, M. and B.K. Padhi, Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in Saudi Arabia: a web-based national survey. Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 2020. 13: p. 1657.
[16]	Agyekum, M.W., et al., Acceptability of COVID-19 Vaccination among Health Care Workers in Ghana. Advances in Public Health, 2021. 2021: p. 1-8.
[17]	Verger, P., et al., Attitudes of healthcare workers towards COVID-19 vaccination: a survey in France and French-speaking parts of Belgium and Canada, 2020. Eurosurveillance, 2021. 26(3): p. 2002047.
[18]	Wang, K., et al., Intention of nurses to accept coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination and change of intention to accept seasonal influenza vaccination during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey. Vaccine, 2020. 38(45): p. 7049-7056.
[19]	El-Elimat, T., et al., Acceptance and attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines: A cross-sectional study from Jordan. Plos one, 2021. 16(4): p. e0250555.
[20]	Leelavathy, M., et al., Attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination among the public in Kerala: A cross sectional study. J Family Med Prim Care, 2021. 10(11): p. 4147-4152.
[21]	Amo-Adjei, J., et al., Trust and willingness towards COVID-19 vaccine uptake: a mixed-method study in Ghana, 2021. Arch Public Health, 2022. 80(1): p. 64.
[22]	Akther, T. and T. Nur, A model of factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: A synthesis of the theory of reasoned action, conspiracy theory belief, awareness, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use. PLOS ONE, 2022. 17(1): p. e0261869.
[23]	haw, J., et al., Assessment of US health care personnel (HCP) attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in a large university health care system. Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2021.
[24]	Dror, A.A., et al., Vaccine hesitancy: the next challenge in the fight against COVID-19. European journal of epidemiology, 2020. 35(8): p. 775-779.
[25]	Roy, B., V. Kumar, and A. Venkatesh, Health care workers’ reluctance to take the Covid-19 vaccine: a consumer-marketing approach to identifying and overcoming hesitancy. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, 2020. 1(6).
[26]	Shekhar, R., et al., COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among health care workers in the United States. Vaccines, 2021. 9(2): p. 119.
[27]	Barry, M., et al., COVID-19 vaccine confidence and hesitancy among health care workers: A cross-sectional survey from a MERS-CoV experienced nation. PloS one, 2021. 16(11): p. e0244415.