Estimating vaccine confidence levels among future healthcare workers and their trainers: A quantitative study protocol

Abstract

ABSTRACTIntroductionThe outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caught the world off guard in the first quarter of the year 2020. To stem the tide of this pandemic, the development, testing, and pre-licensure approval for emergency use of some COVID 19 vaccine candidates were accelerated. This led to raised public concern about their safety and efficacy, compounding the challenges of vaccine hesitancy which was already declared one of the top ten threats to global health in the year 2019. The onus of managing and administering these vaccines to a skeptical populace when they do become available rests mostly on the shoulders of healthcare workers (HCWs). Therefore, the vaccine confidence levels of HCWs becomes critical to the success of vaccination endeavors, especially COVID 19 vaccination. This proposed study aims to estimate the level of vaccine confidence and the intention to receive a COVID 19 vaccine among future HCWs and their trainers at a specific university in Cape Town, South Africa, and to identify any vaccination concerns early for targeted intervention.Methods and analysisAn online survey will be distributed to current staff and students of an academic institution for HCWs. The survey questionnaire will consist of a demographic questions section consisting of six items and a vaccine confidence section comprising six items in Likert scale format.A multinomial logistic regression model will be employed to identify factors associated with vaccine confidence and intention. The strength of association will be assessed using odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval. Statistical significance will be defined at a p-value <0.05.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been obtained for the study from Stellenbosch University (HREC Reference # S19/01/014 (PhD)). The results will be shared with relevant health authorities, presented at conferences, and published in a peer-reviewed journal.ARTICLE SUMMARYStrengths and limitations of this study▸The proposed study will generate baseline knowledge of the vaccine confidence among future healthcare workers and their trainers in its specific context.▸It will contribute to addressing the knowledge gap about the intention to receive a COVID 19 vaccine among health care workers in Africa.▸It will enable the early identification of vaccine concerns of healthcare workers while they are still in training and assist in informing tailored measures to address them.▸A limitation of the study is the possibility of a low response rate which is an inherent challenge of online surveys.