Bolstering the willingness to uptake covid-19 vaccination through multidisciplinary health communication intervention: a cue for reaching herd immunity in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The prevailing unwillingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination among the eligible population has been a serious setback in Nigeria’s bid to reach herd immunity against the pandemic.Objective: We assessed the impact of a multidisciplinary health communication intervention (MHCI) on willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination among eligible unvaccinated community dwellers (EUCD) in Nsukka Urban, Enugu State, Nigeria.Methods: Through a quasi-experiment that adopted a pre-test, post-test, non-control group design, we studied a total of 85 eligibleunvaccinated adults. A researcher-designed "Willingness to Accept COVID-19 Vaccination Questionnaire" was the instrument used for data collection. The data gathered was analysed by means of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. Specifically, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to test the formulated research questions and the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance.Results: We found that the mean scores of willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination increased significantly after the treatment.There was no significant interaction effect of gender, level of education, and age on the mean of willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination scores of EUCD after MHCI.Conclusion: The study established that MHCI is impactful in bolstering the willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccination. The Nigerian government should adopt and implement this intervention in schools, communities, and other institutions in order to attain herd immunity in Nigeria.