Awareness, attitude, and practices of the population regarding the COVID-19 vaccine in Rural and Urban areas around Hyderabad

Abstract

Background: Corona virus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered Corona virus (SARS-CoV-2). Most people infected have mild to moderate symptoms like fever, dry cough, tiredness, headache, sore throat, loss of smell or taste, diarrhoea, and conjunctivitis that recover without hospitalization. The older population or those with co-morbidities like chronic respiratory illness; hypertension etc may develop severe symptoms like difficulty in breathing, chest pain or tightness, and loss of speech or movement, which require hospitalization. Objective: [1] To describe the socio-demographic profile of the study participants. [2] To assess the awareness & determine the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine in the study population. Results: A total of 170 participants took part in the study. More than half of the study participants were males (55.3%), and the mean age of the study population was 37.6±13.3 years. Nearly 1/4^th of the participants had a previous history of COVID-19 infection among them (23.3%), and a similar history among family members was present among 11.6% of the participants. The majority of the participants (89.8%) were aware that COVID-19 is a contagious illness. The majority of them (80.8%) knew that the vaccines are given in two doses. Nearly 3/4^th of them (71.2%) were aware of the registration process for getting the vaccination done, but only half (52.2%) knew about the COWIN application. Nearly 2/3^rd were aware (62.5%) that they can still get infected with COVID-19 post-vaccination. The majority of the aspects showed a favourable attitude of the study participants, with a Median score between 4-5 for the positively framed questions and 1-2 for the negatively framed questions. Conclusion: The knowledge regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, required appropriate social behaviour and awareness regarding the vaccination was good. However, the people were more open to getting vaccinated if available at a government organization and free of cost. The major fear deterring vaccination was the loss of income due to post-vaccination side effects. Responses involving vaccination showing a negative association with literacy indicate the greater need to concentrate awareness and myth-dispelling programs among the rural and lower literacy strata of society.