Potential factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy among Bangladeshi people: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Although vaccines are the most effective tool for preventing infectious disease, COVID-19 vaccination coverage among Bangladeshi mass people was facing challenges because large proportions were hesitant to accept a new vaccine. This study aims to investigate COVID-19 vaccine acceptance intention and to explore the potential factors influencing vaccine acceptance and hesitancy among the Bangladeshi people. A bilingual, self-administered anonymous questionnaire was developed and deployed and mixed-mode approaches (face-to-face and on-line survey) in data collection procedure were applied from 03rd May to 20th June, 2021. In total, 782 Bangladeshi people were participated in this study through random and snowballing sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analysis was employed to explore and rationalize the study objectives. Empirical findings revealed that, 69.4% (95% CI 66.1–72.7) respondents had the hesitation to accept newly promoted vaccines. The binary analysis revealed that, “safety” and “efficacy” had highly significant ( p < 0.01) and positive association with vaccine acceptance. “Communication” had positive and moderately significant ( p < 0.05) association; “culture” had positive and significant ( p < 0.1) association while “rumor” associated moderate significantly ( p < 0.05) and negatively with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. According to the Pearson’s Chi-Square test, male had highly significant ( p < 0.01) willingness to receive vaccines than female gender (OR = 0.501). The prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy could be minimized by providing vaccine safety, side effect and, efficacy data to the community through effective communication. Health awareness campaign in remote areas would remove anti-vaccination beliefs and rumors; thus foster COVID-19 vaccine confidence among the culturally motivated Bangladeshi people.

Factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy among pharmacy students in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

“…Association of conspiracy beliefs with vaccine origin, vaccine data, and post-administration information and strategic communications with community people would build public trust 26 which in turn boosts vaccine confidence and reduces anti-vaccination beliefs. 27 consequently; communication and trust were previously identified as a paramount concern of COVID-19 vaccination among general Bangladeshi people 16 , which are supportive of our findings. Although the COVID-19 vaccine is provided free of cost in Bangladesh, 29.6% of pharmacy students admitted WTP for COVID-19 vaccines if the government fixes the price value.…”

“…11 All these results are supportive of the current study findings. Even though there have been few studies 16,17,20 that reported relatively high vaccine hesitancy rate among Bangladeshi people; however, this study found relatively low (12.2%) vaccine hesitancy among pharmacy students. These studies 16,17,20 were conducted since COVID-19 vaccination was inaugurated to administer in priority groups of a few selective areas in Bangladesh.…”

“…Even though there have been few studies 16,17,20 that reported relatively high vaccine hesitancy rate among Bangladeshi people; however, this study found relatively low (12.2%) vaccine hesitancy among pharmacy students. These studies 16,17,20 were conducted since COVID-19 vaccination was inaugurated to administer in priority groups of a few selective areas in Bangladesh. However, we collected data when the country-wide mass vaccination program was started among various population sub-groups.…”

“…The questionnaire was developed bilingually and the content of each item was validated for ensuring the relevance and clarity of the questionnaire. 16,18 Furthermore, final version of the questionnaire was subsequently pretested on 20 student pharmacist, which were later excluded from final statistical analysis.…”

“…The policymakers have started to work on a plan to include university students in the COVID-19 vaccine inoculation program on a priority basis to resume their regular physical activities in the classrooms and thereby comply with government decisions. 15 To date, however, most of the studies conducted so far in Bangladesh focused on COVID-19 vaccination acceptability among the general people 16,17 and rural community. 18 However, to the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of exploratory study 7 investigating COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among healthcare students, particularly pharmacy students in Bangladesh.…”