Willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine in relation to psychological wellbeing among a sample of university students in Vietnam

Abstract

Abstract Background and aims Nowadays, there are contradicting opinions about the benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccine, which lead to the hesitance among recipients to receive the vaccine. This study aims to evaluate the university student’s attitude toward COVID-19 vaccine, preventative measure, and status of their psychological wellbeing. Methods This was a cross-sectional study among Vietnamese students aged ≥ 18 years to evaluate their willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine, psychological wellbeing status, and preventive measure compliance. The participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire via Google Form. Descriptive and analytical statistics were performed with p < 0.05 being considered as statistically significant. Results A total of 2998 randomly selected participants in Vietnam completed the questionnaire with participants’ mean age of 20.26 $$\pm$$ ± 1.84. The mean score for the willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccination was 46.13 $$\pm$$ ± 19.03 (the highest point was 54). Regarding preventative measures, the mean score of compliance was 7.15 $$\pm$$ ± 1.98 over a 10 points scale and “being vaccinated or not” did not affect their compliance. 56.94% participants were having normal psychological wellbeing at the time of survey and rest 43.06% reported to have experienced stress, varying from slight to severe level. There might be a trend that those studying medicine or those with higher educational level had higher rate of stress than others. Conclusion The study showed a positive result of Vietnamese students’ willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine and compliance towards preventive measures. Besides, we also reported that almost half participants had experienced stress during the pandemic. Developing proper interventions to deal with factors contributing to psychological wellbeing and related problems are essential to deal  with and overcome the pandemic or post-pandemic struggles.