Volume : 7, Issue : 4, APR 2021

ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS AFFECTING HESITANCY TO TAKE COVID 19 VACCINE IN AHMEDABAD CITY, GUJARAT, INDIA

DR JINAL BEN NOGAS, DR DHAVAL V. PAREKH, DR RUTVI VAIDYA, ARUN JAIN, MAHIR PATEL

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Vaccine hesitancy refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite the vaccination service being available. After the COVID-19 vaccine started to rollout, besides enthusiasm, news regarding adverse effects experienced by a few vaccine recipients along with misinformation and conspiracy theories on social media have drawn worldwide attention. Hence, puzzling news on the vaccine effectiveness by the media has had a negative impact on potential vaccine recipients.

METHODOLOGY:

A cross-sectional study was conducted where a pre formed semi structured questionnaire was sent using google forms. The questionnaire was prepared in English, Hindi and Gujarati and circulated amongst the study population. Sample size of 100 was taken of which 50 were health care providers and 50 were from the general population. The questionnaire was sent using Whatsapp, SMS and email to all participants allowing data capture from various places. Analysis was done using Microsoft excel 2019 and Google forms.

RESULT:

Among heath care providers, 72% were willing to take the vaccine as compared to 34% among non heath care providers. The main reasons for hesitancy to take vaccine were fear of side effects (38.24%) followed by thinking that the vaccine is not safe (19.05%). The main source of information about vaccine related information was found to be social media (29%). A significant association was seen between vaccine awareness, occupation and notions about vaccination with the willingness to take vaccine (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION:

Healthcare providers can play a key role in decreasing the vaccine hesitancy and addressing the doubts related to vaccine. Reliable and accurate information should be made available to the common public with the help of mass media. Spreading awareness about the importance of vaccination and its role in attaining herd immunity will be a major step in the fight against this pandemic.

Keywords

COVID19 VACCINE, VACCINE HESITANCY, MISINFORMATION, AWARENESS.

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