Perception of Slum Dwelling Adults Regarding COVID-19 Vaccination
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Abstract
Background: The SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the need to develop rapidly effective and safe vaccines that are the most important public health measures and most effective strategy to protect the population from coronavirus diseases (COVID-19). The slum people are deprived of advanced medical facilities due to low socio-economic conditions.
Objectives: The present study was conducted to assess slum dwellers’ knowledge and perceptions towards COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 305 adult slum people using convince sampling technique. An interviewer guided by face-to-face interviewing using semi-structured. The chi-square test was applied to evaluate the correlations among the respondents between knowledge and perception of the COVID-19 vaccine. A 95% confidence interval was used and statistical significance was p ˂0.01.
Results: Overall, the mean ± SD age of the respondents was 35.39 ± 11.62 years. Only 35.7% of respondents believed vaccines to be effective in controlling COVID-19. Among the respondents, 71.8% received the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 83.3% of respondents believed that the COVID-19 vaccine has side effects. Though over half of the respondents, about 60% had the trust that the vaccines were safe for them, still a significant number as 40% of respondents had concern the vaccine safety.
Conclusion: The study revealed that about two-thirds received vaccination while others had not good conception regarding COVID-19 vaccination because of slum dwellers had a low literacy level, low adherence to health safety regulations and low confidence in the healthcare system.
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