Uptake of COVID-19 vaccines by teachers in Uganda (Case Study: Wakiso Secondary and Primary Teachers)

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the uptake of the COVID 19 vaccines among primary and secondary teachers in Wakiso Town Council. Therefore it aimed at finding out whether factors like the level of education, gender, type of school sponsorship, age, marital status, number of students in the school, knowledge of vaccination points, knowledge of those who died of COVID 19 , the relationship of the teacher with one who died of COVID 19 had a clear relationship with the uptake of the COVID 19 vaccine by teachers in Wakiso. An online questionnaire and interview methods were used for data collection. A sample of 96 respondents was used and was got by convenience sampling from six different schools in Wakiso Town Council. The analysis was done using frequency distribution, Pearson chi-square, and binary logistic regression. The study findings showed that most of the teachers were vaccinated against COVID 19 (90.7%) and only 9.3% were not vaccinated. Following the univariate analysis, more than a half of the respondents were male(58.76%) and the female respondents were 41.24% in this study, most teachers belonged to 25-29 years age group (30.93%), then followed by those in the age group of 40 years and above(22.68%), then 17.53% of the teachers in Wakiso were below 25 years of age, 14.43% of them between 35-39 years of age and 14.43% were 30-34 years of age. More than a half of the teachers in Wakiso acknowledged that it was a requirement for them to be vaccinated at their schools (78.35%) and 21.65% of the teachers claimed that it wasn't a requirement for them to be vaccinated at their schools. In vicariate analysis, only three variables had a significant impact on the uptake of the COVID 19 vaccine among the teachers in Wakiso that is; the number of students in a school, the relationship between a teacher and those that died of COVID 19 or its vaccines, and knowledge of any vaccination point around the places of work or residence of a teacher with p values less than 0.1 Following the multivariate analysis, knowledge of any vaccination point around the places of residence or work of a teacher proved significant in the uptake of the COVID 19 vaccines by teachers in Wakiso (OR=1.065) The findings indicated that there was need for the responsible agencies like the Ministry of Health responsible for the vaccination exercises: i)To increase awareness of these vaccination points in each area; that is in town councils, parishes, villages etc ii) To ensure that these points are also accessible all the time iii) To ensure that the languages used in these points are not foreign to the people in these areas.