Abstract
Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmittable and pathogenic respiratory virus, which when it causes a multitude of symptoms, is known as coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Vaccines have been developed at pandemic speed to try and curb the spread of the virus, decrease the mortality rate, and restore normality. However, vaccine hesitancy poses a great threat towards successful vaccination and controlling the spread of COVID-19. The high rate of COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy emanates from concerns about vaccine safety, adverse reactions, efficacy, mistrust in the government and in the rapidity of vaccine development.
Aim: The primary aim of this study was to explore and determine the attitudes and perceptions of Complementary Medicine students at University of Johannesburg towards the COVID-19 vaccinations. The secondary aim was to determine if there were differences between these attitudes and perceptions across the different academic years within the programme.
Methodology: This research was an explorative and quantitative cross-sectional study. The population group consisted of Complementary Medicine students enrolled for the Bachelor of Health Sciences in Complementary Medicine (1st to 4th year) and Master of Health Sciences in Complementary Medicine (1st and 2nd year) degree programmes. A non-probability, voluntary response sampling strategy was used. The sample students were invited to complete an online questionnaire adapted from three questionnaires: Vaccination Attitude Examination (VAX) Scale (Martin and Petrie, 2017); Knowledge, Attitude, Practices and Concerns (KAPC) Questionnaire (Kumari et al., 2021) and Determinants of intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19 among healthcare personnel in hospitals in Greece (Maltezou et al., 2021).
Results and discussion: This study consisted of a population size of 181 (N=181) Complementary Medicine students. The response rate was 43% (n=78). Four scales, mistrust in the vaccine benefit, worries about unforeseen future effects, concerns about commercial profiteering and preference to natural immunity were used to determine the student’s attitudes. The results showed that most of the participants had negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination within all four scales. The participants had negative perceptions of the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines.
When comparing the junior and senior cohort, it was determined that both had similar negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination, except in the preference to natural immunity scale (p =0.046), where the senior cohort showed higher preference to natural immunity. Conclusion: It can thus be concluded from the collected data that overall, the Complementary Medicine students had negative attitudes and perceptions towards the COVID-19 vaccinations. When comparing the junior and senior cohorts, they had similar and mostly negative attitudes and perceptions towards the COVID-19 vaccinations in almost all scales except preference to natural immunity (p =0.046). Future research should focus on determining if preference to natural immunity can be linked to the philosophies that govern complementary medicine.
Keywords: COVID-19, vaccination, attitudes, perceptions, complementary medicine