Potential factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy among university students in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional comparative study

Abstract

This study investigated COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, and compared the potential factors influencing vaccine acceptance and hesitancy between public university (PuU) and private university (PrU) students in Bangladesh. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was sent to 640 PuU and 660 PrU students in Google Form between 25th September and 22nd November 2021, which resulted in the participation of 1034 (461 PuU vs. 573 PrU) respondents (response rate: 72.03% vs. 86.81%). The pooled vaccine acceptance rates among PuU and PrU students were almost similar (88.1%, 95% CI 85.1─91.1 vs. 87.6%, 95% CI 84.6─90.6). Employing binary logistic regression to assess the association between various potential factors and vaccine acceptance, the study revealed that out of 10 predictors, "safety" and "efficacy" had highly significant positive associations with vaccine acceptance in both cohorts (p=0.000 ,p=0.005). "Political roles" was found to have varied effects─ a significant (p=0.02) negative and a significant positive (p=0.002) association with vaccine acceptance in PuU and PrU students, respectively.Additionally, "communication" (p=0.003) and "trust" (p=0.01) were found to have significant positive associations in PrU students while "rumors" (p=0.03) had negative association in PuU students. The odds of accepting the COVID-19 vaccine were 1.5 vs. 0.9 in PuU and PrU students. Although chi-square analysis did not show any significant association between gender and vaccine acceptance, discrepancies were found in the factors that potentially affect vaccine uptake decision between PuU and PrU students.COVID-19 vaccine uptake may be improved if vaccine-related information becomes available and is communicated to large numbers of people effectively. The implementation of multidisciplinary interventional educational programs may also be considered as a preferred approach to improve student's engagement in pandemic awareness and vaccine readiness.

Perspectives on the COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout in 17 Countries: Reflexive Thematic and Frequency Analysis Based on the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Framework

“…Instead, other ethical controversies and spreading of disinformation were found to be the most frequently reported themes within the threats element. In the present digital era, information accessibility is at its peak; however, it is important be aware of the source of the information given that rumors and fake news are rampant [ 17 , 57 ].…”

Sociopsychological determinants of COVID‐19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy among the students' of higher secondary schools in rural Bangladesh: A cross‐sectional study

“…Current study observed that, approximately 30% higher secondary school's students had COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy, while the majority 69.9% had the acceptance willingness. In Bangladesh, several studies focused on university students' COVID‐19 vaccination acceptability and reported at least 75% uptake rate (Hoque et al, 2022; Hossain et al, 2021; Rahman et al, 2022; Roy, Azam, et al, 2022). However, the prevalence of COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy was high among old aged peoples, low educated, day laborers, and chronically diseased individual (Patwary et al, 2021).…”

“…However, the complex nature of motives behind COVID‐9 vaccine hesitancy among various subgroup populations varied widely depending on the regional diversity (Roy, Biswas, et al, 2022). The frequency of COVID‐19 vaccine acceptance among the university students found prevalence between 89.4% in India (Jain et al, 2021), 78.4% in the United States (Manning et al, 2021), 83% in France (Tavolacci et al, 2021), 76.3% in China (Bai et al, 2021), 60.4% in Jordan (Sallam et al, 2021), 62.6% in Qatar (Al‐Mulla et al, 2021), 86.1% in Italy (Barello et al, 2020), 37.3% in Uganda (Kanyike et al, 2021), 69.5% in Malta (Grech & Gauci, 2020), and 70% in Bangladesh (Roy, Azam, et al, 2022; Roy et al, 2022a, 2022b). The most prevailing factors associated with COVID‐19 vaccine distrust led to grow hesitance among the students followed the same pattern as they marked in frequencies among other subgroups.…”

“…Meanwhile, the government of Bangladesh decided to administer COVID‐19 vaccines among the students of secondary and higher secondary education for confirming long‐term school openings. While to date, most of the scientific studies evaluated COVID‐19 vaccine acceptability among the general people (Abedin et al, 2021; Ali & Hossain, 2021; Banik et al, 2021; Patwary et al, 2021; Roy, Hossen, et al, 2022), rural community (Roy, Huda, et al, 2022), and university setting (Hoque et al, 2022; Roy, Azam, et al, 2022; Roy et al, 2022a, 2022b; Hossain, Islam, et al, 2021; Rahman et al, 2022) in Bangladesh. Response to COVID‐19 vaccine and vaccination readiness from the academic people of higher secondary schools had rarely been studied.…”

Multi-dimensional potential factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine booster acceptance and hesitancy among university academic community in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional comparative study

“…Recent studies have documented the substantial influence of teachers on student attitudes and behavior [29] and dynamic vaccine behaviors existing in a college setting [30]. Several observational studies conducted in Bangladesh to date have focused on COVID-19 vaccination events among diverse sub-group populations [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], including university students [39][40][41][42][43]. However; public readiness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine booster dose has rarely been studied in Bangladesh.…”