COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among medical and health science students attending Wolkite University in Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Medical and health science students are among the frontline health care workers who are at high risk of acquiring COVID-19 infection during their clinical attachments and future career. As health care providers, they are expected to promote and administer the COVID-19 vaccine and counsel vaccine-hesitant patients. It is, therefore, imperative to assess COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among medical and health science students. Thus, this study aimed to assess COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its associated factors among medical and health science students of Wolkite University. Method An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 420 medical and health science students attending Wolkite University from March 1 to 30, 2021. Simple random sampling technique was used to select study participants. Self-administered and structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were entered into Epi-Data version 4.2.0 and exported to SPSS version 23 software package for further analysis. Bivariable and multivariable analysis was used to identify associated factors. P values <0.05 result were considered as a statistically significant association. Results The level of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was 41.2% (95% CI; 35.2%-50.4%). Student age ≤23 years were 1.9 times more likely vaccine hesitant [aOR = 1.94, 95% CI; 1.14–3.28], being female were 1.7 times more likely vaccine hesitant [aOR = 1.76, 95% CI; 1.14–2.72], resided in rural area were 1.6 times more likely vaccine hesitant [aOR = 1.63, 95% CI; 1.06–2.49], source of information from social media were 2.7 times more likely vaccine hesitant [aOR = 2.68, 95% CI; 1.58–4.54], and good practice to COVID-19 mitigation measures were 47% less likely vaccine hesitant [aOR = 0.53, 95% CI; 0.34–0.83] compared to their counterpart. Conclusions COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is found to be high. Therefore, students are advised to receive COVID-19 vaccine information from government lead mass media (i.e. television and radio), increase awareness and adherence to COVID-19 mitigation measures is recommended.