Vaccine Confidence: Covid-19 Vaccine and Hepatitis B Vaccine Knowledge, Attitude and Belief among Health Science Students in a University in Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Both hepatitis B and coronavirus vaccines are important requirement for all health science student because of their potential exposure to hepatitis B and coronavirus diseases during their clinical experience. Vaccine uptake has recently been affected by lack of confidence to their efficacy and safety. This attitude is vaccine dependent and understanding of the determinants will help to prevent vaccine hesitancy. This study was designed to compare the attitude of health science student toward hepatitis B vaccine and coronavirus vaccine. Method:  A descriptive cross-sectional study carried out among students of one of the colleges of health sciences in Enugu Nigeria. The students comprised of medical students, medical laboratory students and nursing students who visit the hospital for their clinical postings and experiences. Three, two and two classes in the departments of medicine, medical laboratory science and nursing science respectively met the inclusion criteria for the study. They are six hundred and two students in the three departments of the college. Two classes were selected from the department of medicine and one class each from the department of medical laboratory science and nursing science respectively using simple random sampling method. A total of 303 (135; medicine students, 85; medical laboratory and 83; nursing students) students were in the selected classes and all of them participated in the study. The questionaries were distributed to all the students in the selected classes during their lectures. A pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitude and vaccine status, and beliefs concerning Hepatitis B vaccines and coronavirus vaccine. The questions on knowledge were adopted from related literatures while questions on attitude were adopted from Parental Attitude on Childhood Vaccine (PACV) questions and Global Vaccine Confidence (GVC) survey. The findings and scores were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistic software for windows (SPSS statistical software V.21 (IBM Corp. 2019). Total of 11 responses were incomplete in either one or more questions and they were all removed bringing the total number of valid participants to 292. The age of the respondents was grouped, and the simple mean obtained. Scores on knowledge were calculated by scoring correct response as 1 and scoring incorrect as 0. All ‘I don’t know’ responses were regarded as negative answer. A score of less than 50% correct responses was regarded as ‘less than average’, and 50% or more correct responses was regarded as ‘above average’. The attitude of the students towards hepatitis B vaccine and coronavirus vaccine were compared using chi-square and the p-value less than 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. Results: Out of 303 students, 292 responded to all the questions while 11 were incomplete. Two hundred and four participants (69.9) were females while 88(30.1) were males with the mean age of 22.6 SD 2.6. The medical students, nursing students and medical laboratory students contributed to 134(45.9), 81(27.7) and 77(26.4) respectively. On the general knowledge, 282(96.6%) had knowledge above average. Although the responses to the question ‘Upon discovery of vaccine for a particular disease, the “efficacy” of the vaccine will be considered before approval by the appropriate organizations’ were little above average, 161(55.1). The students had better attitude towards hepatitis B vaccine than coronavirus vaccine. For instance, 114(39%) students had decided not to have coronavirus vaccine against 43(14.7%) for hepatitis B vaccine. Again, 204(69.9) and 125(42.8) expressed concern on the ‘safe’ of coronavirus vaccine and hepatitis B vaccine, respectively. Similar responses were observed on the question concerning the side effect of the two vaccines. The questions on the ‘Trust”: the respondent expressed significant distrust to their doctors, government, media, and their spiritual leader concerning the coronavirus than the hepatitis B vaccine. The difference in the responses on the ‘efficacy’ of the two vaccine was not significant. In the practice domain, the majority of the students have not had both hepatitis B and coronavirus vaccine. There was significant difference between those who indicated wiliness to take hepatitis B vaccine and coronavirus vaccine as soon as they are available. In conclusion: The knowledge about vaccine as expressed by the students in this study was above average. They expressed negative attitude to coronavirus vaccine than hepatitis B vaccine. The student expressed concern on the efficacy of the two vaccines and the vaccine generally. It was also observed that many of the students have not had hepatitis B vaccine despite their willingness. It therefore important to introduce the concept of vaccine confidence in the health science curriculum and emphasis should be made on the efficacy of vaccines. There is also a need to scale up hepatitis B vaccine coverage among students of health sciences.