Assessment of Willingness to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine and Associated Factors among Teachers in Dambi Dollo Town, Qellem Wallaga Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia: Institution-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background COVID-19 devastated the routine life of all humankind since its discovery in Wuhan, China in 2019 and is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) infections. Vaccination is an effective means for controlling the communicability of the disease and every effort has to be made to increase the proportion of vaccinated people against COVID-19. Objective The main objective of this study was to assess the willingness of teachers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and its associated factors in Dambi Dollo town, in 2022. Methods School-based cross-sectional study design was applied. The data were collected self-administered questionnaire and analysed by SPSS version 23.0. Variables that showed association with the dependent variable in the bivariate analyses at 0.25 were entered into multiple stepwise logistic regression model. P- Value 0.05 was considered statistically significant in this study. Adjusted Odds ratios together with corresponding 95% confidence intervals were used to interpret the findings. Results About 92% of the teachers in Dambi Dollo town have heard covid-19 vaccine and 67.2% of them know that the vaccine can prevent the COVID-19 disease. On the other hand, 51%( 95%CI: 44.8, 57.2) of the respondents had good knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccine. From the total 247 participants who have responded to our inquiry on their willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, 68.4% (95%CI: 62.5, 74.3) of them were willing to receive the vaccine immediately while the remaining were either not willing or not ready at the time of data collection. Those participants having good knowledge of the vaccine were about six times more willing to get vaccinated, (AOR = 5.85, 95%CI: 2.74, 12.47) in comparison with those having poor knowledge of the vaccine. Conclusion In conclusion, the level of willingness to receive the COVID-19 Vaccine was 68.4% relatively low in the current study population and participants’ religion and knowledge status are the two variables significantly associated with willingness to receive the vaccine.