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PREDICTION OF THE ACCEPTABILITY OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19) VACCINATION IN SAUDI ARABIA
Background: Widespread vaccination coverage is an important aspect for achieving “herd immunity” against Covid-19, however, vaccination resistance hinders effective uptake of vaccination. It is therefore important to identify determinants associated with covid-19 vaccination acceptability.
Objective: To identify determinants associated with Covid-19 vaccination acceptability among Saudi Nationals
Subjects and Methods:
1000 participants were recruited online using snowball sampling technique in which 834 were analyzed after removal of missing and incomplete data. Eligible participants were aged 16 and above who lives in Saudi Arabia and use WhatsApp and Twitter platforms. Without identifying personal information or personal information, the data were gathered from the participants. The process of gathering data was initiated in March 2021 and continued until the end of May 2021, with data coming from different Saudi Arabian provinces. Participants were independent to quit the survey at any moment and finish it whenever it was convenient for them once it began.
Results: The mean age of participants was 27.36 ± 7.33 years, the mean Knowledge, attitude, subjective norm, intention score was 3.04 ± 0.47, 3.19 ± 0.47, 2.63 ± 0.49, 2.89 ± 0.41 respectively and mean Perceived behavioral control score was 2.25 ± 0.72. This study reported that 531(63.7%) participants had the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination. In current study younger age 0.947[0.926-0.969], gender 1.829[1.319-2.537], work status 1.305[1.086-1.569], attitude score 0.689[0.490-0.967], subjective norm score 2.333[1.655-3.288] and perceived behavior score 1.812[1.423-2.308] were all significant predictors of vaccine acceptability (p-values<0.05 for all).
Conclusion: Covid-19 vaccination acceptability was found to be among 63.7% of the participants. Factors like age, gender, work status, attitude, perceived behavior and subjective norms were significant in determining the vaccine acceptability. Hence, through timely awareness campaigns about covid-19, possible consequences and myths associated with vaccination, we could decrease the resistance towards covid-19 vaccination.
Keywords: Covid-19 vaccination, acceptability, vaccine resistance, vaccine hesitancy, perception