Knowledge, attitude and practice towards Covid-19 vaccination in Uganda: a case study of Makerere Region
Abstract
The main objective of the study was to assess Knowledge, attitude and practices towards covid-19 vaccination. A cross-sectional survey was adopted and primary data was collected from 322 respondents from different households around Makerere regions of Kikoni, Kivulu, and Kavule in Kawempe south division of Kampala using a questionnaire approach designed in a kobo tool box. Simple random sampling was used. Data cleaning and analysis was done using STATA. Multiple logistic regression was used to investigate the influence of social-demographic and economic factors towards the covid-19 vaccination.
The study findings reveal that majority of the respondents were male (54.9%), most respondents had attained tertiary/university education (59.3%) and (4.35%) did not attain any level of education and that majority of the respondents were single (64.6%) while only (9.627%) were widowed. It also reveals that majority (53.4%) were employed, (21.4%) were Students and (25.2%) were un-employed, (98.1%) had information about the existence of covid-19 and (78.3%) reported that the vaccine was free. However, people’s hesitancy and refusal of vaccine has been noted due to fear of vaccine side effect. This made 84.5%) of the respondents to recommend others and friends for vaccinated lather than them being vaccinated.
The study findings have indicated that respondents who were self-employed and those who were un-employed had a significant effect on covid-19 vaccination. On top of that, having information about covid-19, recommending other people to go for vaccination and being it that covid-19 vaccine was free all had significant effect on covid-19 vaccination. However, age, marital status, gender, education levels and income levels all had no significant effect on covid-19 vaccination.
The study recommended further research in various regions of Uganda to assess Knowledge, attitude and practice towards covid-19 vaccination in the entire country and the extent to which people up-take covid-19 privation measures and practices. In addition, the study recommended further research to find out the status of the Healthcare workers in Uganda towards covid-19 vaccination.
Finally, it recommended that research should also be carried out to measure the success of various policies that have been implemented by the government to reduce covid-19 effects such as social distance, mask wearing, use of detergents among others.