COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among staff and students in a Nigerian tertiary educational institution

Background: COVID-19 was first reported on 31 December 2019 and has so far claimed over 2,000 lives in Nigeria. Through global and national efforts, about 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine was distributed and used in Nigeria from March 2021. Vaccine hesitancy could pose a serious problem for COVID-19 prevention and control.

Objectives: To estimate the proportion of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University community that is willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19; level of hesitancy and its associated factors.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using online Google form distributed to staff and students of the university via different WhatsApp groups. The outcome measures were the proportion of persons willing to be vaccinated, vaccine hesitancy rates and reasons for this hesitancy. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23 and Minitab version 19. Bivariate analysis was performed by the chi-square test, Odds Ratios (ORs) and statistical significance was accepted when p-value is < 0.05.

Results: Only 349 of the survey responses were analyzed in the survey. Results show that 34.70 ± 5.00% of the university community were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it is offered to them. The COVID-19 hesitancy rate among staff and students was 65.04 ± 5.00%. It was discovered that marital status (OR = 2.06), age (OR = 0.802) and christian denominational affiliation (OR = 0.366) influenced respondents' perception of COVID-19 vaccination. Gender, occupation, previous vaccination experience, awareness of COVID-19 and previous symptoms of COVID-19 did not significantly (p = 0.05) influence respondents' willingness to be vaccinated.

Conclusion: COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is high among staff and students in a Nigerian university and is significantly influenced by marital status, respondents' age and christian denominational affiliation.