Perception and willingness to accept COVID-19 Vaccines: A cross-sectional survey of the general population of Sokoto State, Nigeria

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally is well over 400 million, however, the number of cases is showing a downward trend especially in developed countries largely as a result of effective vaccination against COVID-19. In developing countries, vaccination coverage is still very low as a result of vaccine hesitancy, which could be attributed to misconceptions about COVID-19 itself and its newly developed vaccines. This study assessed COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and perception amongst the adult population in Sokoto state, Nigeria. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Sokoto state among 854 respondents selected via a multi-stage sampling technique. Data was collected electronically using a set of structured questionnaire and analysis was done using IBM SPSS version 25. Respondents' perception was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Respondents having a score of 3 and below were graded as having poor perception and those having scores above 3 were graded as having good perception. Respondents' ages ranged from 17 to 76 years, with a mean of 34.8 +/- 12.07; more than half [474(53.7%)] of the respondents were males, 667(75.5%) were married and 539(61.0%) had formal education. The majority [839(95.0%)] of the respondents had a good perception of COVID -19 vaccine; 49.9% agreed enough research would be required on the safety of the vaccine. The majority, (72.4%) expressed their willingness to accept the COVID- 19 vaccine (male 38.4% vs. female 34.0%); 410(47.4%) said they can spend more than one hour to get the vaccine. Significant predictors of willingness to accept COVID 19 vaccine include age (p = 0.006; aOR = 0.223; 95% CI = 0.077-0.645), education (p<0.001; aOR = 1.720; 95% CI = 1.274-2.321) and perception of COVID 19 vaccine (p<0.001; aOR = 0.020; 95% CI = 0.009-0.044). The majority of the respondents had a good perception of COVID- 19 vaccine and more than two-thirds were willing to be vaccinated with the vaccine. Government should make the vaccine available for vaccination since a significant proportion of the respondents expressed their willingness to accept the vaccine