Socio-Demographic Characteristics of COVID-19 Vaccine Recipients in Kwara State, North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Understanding key socio-demographic variables of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine recipients is crucial to improving its acceptance and Nigeria's COVID-19 control strategy. The survey was conducted as a non-probability cross-sectional survey of 2,936 COVID-19 vaccine recipients in Kwara State. Our findings revealed that 74% (n = 2,161) of the vaccine recipients were older than 40 years. Forty percent (n = 1,180) of the vaccine recipients earned a monthly income >100,000 Naira (equivalent to US $200). Most of the vaccine recipients (64%, n = 1,880) had tertiary education, while 15% (n = 440) of them had no formal education. Almost half of the recipients (47%, n = 1,262) were government employees and 28.8% (n = 846) of them had health-related backgrounds. Only 17% (n = 499) of the vaccine recipients have been screened for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), of which 21% (n = 105/499) of them were tested positive. Only 47% (n = 1,378) had been fully immunized. The prevalence of confirmed COVID-19 cases among COVID-19 vaccine recipients in Kwara State was 3.6% (n = 105/2,936). The most recurrent adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) among vaccine recipients were fever (14%, n = 411), pain at injection site (47%, n = 1,409), headache (19%, n = 558), and body weakness (9%, n = 264). The need to protect themselves from the deadly virus was the main reason that prompted people to voluntarily accept the COVID-19 vaccine. There is a high level of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among respondents across all social classes including those with no formal education, those with very low monthly income (< US $2 per day), and in untested population. Hence, vaccine donors should prioritize equitable distribution to Low-and-Middle-income Countries (LMICs) such as Nigeria, and health authorities should improve vaccine advocacy to focus on vaccine safety and efficacy.

Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review

“…We describe these categories in further detail below. We do not provide additional details on operationalisation of the uptake measurement because it is used as a proxy for measuring assumed COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in these studies 46–49…”

A cross-sectional survey of COVID-19 testing status among vaccine recipients in Gombe, North-Eastern Nigeria

“…To effectively curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2, a combination of non-pharmaceutical-and pharmaceutical interventions are needed to protect lives, prevent deaths, and reduce the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic [17,21]. Generally, COVID-19 testing status is very important to determine the true disease burden at the population level [22].…”

“…This has made people shy away from testing. However, there was better mass advocacy on vaccine acceptance than in testing, especially with the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines which made people voluntarily present themselves for inoculation even at the grass-root level [17,21]. Hence, to determine the true burden of COVID-19 in Nigeria, there is a need for robust improvement in the national COVID-19 testing capacity including genomic surveillance [22,27,28].…”

“…To obtain information on the COVID-19 testing status and the socio-demographic parameters of vaccine recipients, we adapted a semi-structured questionnaire from a previous study that evaluated the sociodemographic characteristics of COVID-19 vaccine recipients in Kwara State [17] and administered it as oneon-one interviews using paper questionnaires in Gombe State. The survey instrument was rst conducted as a pre-test on 20 vaccine recipients to estimate the time required to ll out the survey, the need for translation, and other technical and contextual evaluations.…”

“…In addition to its use in disease control, COVID-19 testing was shown to be positively associated with increased vaccination acceptance as participants tested for COVID-19 were 4.71 times more likely to accept the COVID vaccines [16]. Also, evaluating the COVID-19 testing status and pro les of vaccine recipients would provide information on effective health communication strategies necessary to increase the public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines [17]. Hence, this study assessed the COVID-19 testing status as well as the socio-demographic pro les of the COVID-19 vaccine recipients in Gombe State, North-Eastern Nigeria.…”