Malaria vaccine acceptability and associated factors among women attending the infant and young child clinic at Kawempe National Referral Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Malaria still remains a public health concern globally and more so among children under five years of age. The WHO now recommends the RTS, S/AS01 malaria vaccine as an additional prevention of P. falciparum malaria in children living in regions with moderate to high transmission, this study sought to assess whether mothers would accept the vaccination for their infants and associated factors. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among 179 mothers/women aged 16 to 49 years with infants aged 6 to 12 months. The mothers were enrolled while seeking immunization services. Data on vaccine acceptability defined as willingness to accept the malaria vaccine when rolled out was obtained using interviewer- administered questionnaires. Using descriptive statistics, we described willingness to accept malaria vaccine, complacence of malaria as a disease and vaccine confidence using proportions. Binary regression was used to assess the association between variables Results: The acceptability of the infant malaria vaccine was high 75.4%. This was positively associated with formal employment status (AOR 2.88,CI 1.18-7.05), higher education AOR (2.65,CI 1.10-6.35), trust in vaccine safety and efficacy (AOR 4.97, CI 2.04-12.11), perception of malaria as a serious disease (AOR 2.12 CI 1,01-4.44). There was low awareness of the vaccine among mothers with only 29.1% participants reporting prior awareness. This however was not significantly associated with vaccine acceptability (AOR 1.88 CI 0.75-4.73) Conclusion: Acceptability of the infant malaria vaccine was high and was associated complacence of malaria as a disease and confidence in the vaccine. There is need to create awareness of the malaria vaccine before is rolled out to facilitate its acceptability and uptake.