Beliefs and Barriers Associated with COVID-19 Vaccination among Students

Abstract

Background: The spread of COVID-19 is considered as a challenge all over the world since it was declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. In addition to protective measures, early diagnosis, and medical managements, there is urgent need for safe, effective prophylactic vaccine to control the pandemic, several vaccines have been developed and approved for emergency immunization in many countries for examples Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. Objective: is to explore the beliefs, barriers, and motivators associated with COVID-19 vaccination among students in Iraqi University, and to assess the association between the sociodemographic factors and the acceptance of vaccination among students. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2021. The questionnaire distributed for 441 students in four colleges in a private University in Iraq. Th questionnaire form consisted of 15 questions that classified into four sections (section 1 concerns sociodemographic data, section 2 deals with respondent’s beliefs, section 3 consists of the barriers to take the vaccine, and section 4 include the respondent’s motivators to accept the vaccination.). Results: (60.3%) believe that the COVID-19 vaccination is important, the most reported barriers of COVID-19 vaccination were its safety and adverse effects (64.2%) and (48.3%) had concerns for the acquisition of COVID-19 from the vaccine itself. Participant’s concern regarding their family infection with COVID-19 correlate significantly with vaccination acceptance with p<0.05.