Acceptance of malaria vaccine among mothers of under-five children in Nigeria: Results from the M-VAN survey

Background

Malaria is one of the most common causes of death among children under 5 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria accounts for 1 in every 4 global malaria incidences and deaths. We evaluated the prevalence and correlates of malaria vaccine acceptance among mothers of children under 5 years in Nigeria.

Methods

A convenient sample of mothers of children under the age of 5 was recruited via a cross-sectional online survey conducted between 20 and 25 October 2021. Participants who replied ‘yes’ to a questionnaire assessing their willingness to accept the malaria vaccine were considered “acceptant”. We fit a multivariate logistic regression model to report the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the factors associated with vaccine acceptance.

Results

Among the 595 participants (mean age 35 years [SD; 9.84]), 463 (77.82%) were willing to accept a malaria vaccine for their children. The results of our multivariable analysis showed that belonging to the Hausa tribe is associated with significantly higher odds of acceptance, compared to Igbo (aOR: 2.78, 95% CI:1.09–7.14) and other tribes (aOR:2.27, 95% CI: 1.11–4.55). The most common reasons for malaria vaccine acceptance include preventing the development of complicated malaria, reducing the frequency of malaria episodes in children, improving a child's quality of life, and reducing the number of school hours lost to malaria.

Conclusion

Further efforts are needed to understand the cultural barriers to malaria vaccine acceptance in order to maximize malaria vaccine uptake when the actual vaccine roll-out commences.