Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a worldwide public health challenge. Taking the COVID-19 vaccine is the main recommended precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the pan-demic. Health authorities in every country are working towards achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are misconceptions circulating on social media platforms and social gatherings about the COVID-19 vaccine. Because of that, people are re-luctant to get vaccinated. The purpose of this study was to investigate awareness, attitudes and perceptions of the adult population regarding COVID-19 vaccine in the rural areas of La-dysmith, South Africa. Furthermore, the study sought to examine the relationship between socio-demographic factors and awareness, attitudes and perceptions of people on COVID-19 vaccine. The study identified valuable and informative content that can guide health authori-ties in development and implementation of appropriate health promotion interventions that would improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake.
This observational, cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted in ten primary healthcare (PHC) facilities in the rural areas of Ladysmith, which is located in uThukela Dis-trict of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where prevalence of COVID-19 vaccination status was observed to be low. Awareness, attitudes and perceptions on COVID-19 vaccine were thought to be directly affecting people’s decision on whether to vaccinate or not to vaccinate. The participants of the study were adult patients and staff at the ten PHC facilities. The sam-ple size was calculated using EPINFO app version 7.2 as presented in Figure 4 of Chapter 3. A non-probability convenience sampling strategy was used to select study participants. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire with closed-ended questions. The col-lected quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28. Descriptive frequencies were run on awareness, attitudes and perceptions. Cross tabulation analysis was conducted to determine association between variables of the study.
Results of the study indicated that a majority of participants were aware of the vaccine, just more than half of them understood the importance of the vaccine, and a significant number of participants had negative attitudes and perceptions towards COVID-19 vaccine while it was positive for others. Educational level, employment status and participants’ category (being patient or staff) were all associated with either awareness, attitudes or perceptions of adult people on COVID-19 vaccine while age, gender and marital status were not.