Willingness of secondary school adolescents to get vaccinated against Malaria: a cross-sectional study in Enugu, South-East Nigeria.

Background: Malaria is a serious public health challenge both in children and adolescents.

Objectives: This study was aimed to document the willingness of the adolescents to accept vaccine and its associated factors.

Methodology: This was an observational and cross-sectional study on four hundred and ninety-six secondary school adolescents in six secondary schools in Enugu from June 2023 to September 2023. Data entry and analysis were done using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical software version 25.

Results: A reasonable proportion of the respondents, 68.1% were willing to receive malaria vaccine. A higher proportion of the respondents, 59.3% knew that malaria vaccination could protect against seasonal influenza. Less than one third of the respondents, 32.1% had good knowledge of malaria vaccination. The respondents who were less than 15 years were twice more likely to receive malaria vaccination when compared with those who were 15 years and above, (AOR=2.2, 95%CI: 1.1-4.7). The respondents who were males were about twice less likely to receive malaria vaccination when compared with those who were females, (AOR=0.6, 95%CI: 0.4-0.9). The respondents who had good knowledge of malaria vaccination were twice more likely to receive malaria vaccination when compared with those who had poor knowledge, (AOR=2,2, 95%CI: 1.4-3.4).

Conclusion: A reasonable proportion of secondary school adolescents were willing to receive the malaria vaccine. Willingness to receive malaria vaccine is influenced by gender, knowledge of malaria vaccine and age of the adolescent.