Assessing COVID-19 Booster Hesitancy and Its Correlates: An Early Evidence from India

Abstract

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 mutants, waning immunity, and breakthrough infections prompted the use of booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to fight against the pandemic. India started booster doses in January 2022 and it is critical to determine the intention of booster dose uptake and its correlates. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study aimed to investigate booster dose acceptability and associated predictors among the Indian population. A convenience sampling technique was utilized to recruit a sample of 687 Indian residents. A 55-item psychometric validated survey tool was used to assess booster dose acceptability, vaccine literacy and vaccine confidence. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical methods were used to analyze the data. Over 50% of participants reported their willingness to take the booster dose. Among the group not willing to take the booster dose (n = 303, 44.1%), a significantly larger proportion of respondents were unvaccinated with the primary series (12.2% vs. 5.2%, p < 0.001), had an annual income below 2.96 lacs/annum (52.8% vs. 33.1, p < 0.001), were residents of rural areas (38.0% vs. 23.2%, p < 0.001), were not living with vulnerable individuals (78.5% vs. 65.2%, p < 0.001) and did not have family/friends who had tested positive for COVID-19 (54.6% vs. 35.1%, p = 0.001). Demographic, vaccine variables and multi-theory model subscales to predict the initiation of booster dose among hesitant participants were statistically significant, R2 = 0.561, F (26, 244) = 11.978, p < 0.001; adjusted R2 = 0.514. Findings of this study highlight the need to develop evidence-based interventions to promote vaccine uptake, particularly among hard-to-reach communities living in developing countries.

Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of vaccinated COVID-19 patients: A meta-analysis and systematic review

“…9 There are still some people who are hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, especially those living in developing countries. 10 Residents' misunderstanding and distrust of vaccines may also lead to blind anti-vaccine movements. 11 Unfortunately, it is not known whether VOCs can identify antibodies accurately, and whether mutations can evade vaccine-induced immunity and reduce vaccine activity is also of concern.…”

“…9 There are still some people who are hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, especially those living in developing countries. 10 Residents' misunderstanding and distrust of vaccines may also lead to blind anti-vaccine movements. 11…”

Drivers of and Barriers to COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Dose Acceptance in Indonesia

“…This acceptance rate is above the target of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, which stated that 70% vaccine coverage is adequate to achieve herd immunity [33]. This rate is also higher compared to the acceptance rate in Japan (4832/6172; 78.3%) [34], China (6321/8229; 76.8% accepted) [35], Poland (330/443; 74.5%) [36] and India (384/687; 52.1) [37]. However, this present study is limited to those who have already completed the primary series (an estimated 60.8% of the population).…”

Willingness to accept a second COVID-19 vaccination booster dose among healthcare workers in Italy

“…in Saudi Arabia (55.3%) (22), Czechia (71.3%) (23), and China (87%) (24). A surprising finding was that this value was also considerably lower than those in the general population in India (59.1%) (25), the Middle East and North Africa Region (60.2%) (26), China (91.1%) (27), Japan (97.8%) (28), university students and staff in Italy (85.7%) (15), and the United States (96.2%) (29). The finding of the present study is of great concern because HCWs have a higher risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 than the general population; in Italy, since the beginning of the pandemic as of September 2021, there have been 3,970 deaths among HCWs out of a total of 124,000 (30).…”