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Awareness on COVID 19 vaccination among public: a questionnaire surveys

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 or Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a newly discovered coronavirus, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2 become the major threat to public health. Several vaccines have been approved for use against coronavirus disease and distributed globally in different regions. Thus, the study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and awareness towards COVID-19 vaccination among the general population in Chengalpet district, Tamil nadu. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in the year of 2021 from department of Public Health Dentistry, among 274 participants who are residing in Chengalpet district. Study approval is being obtained from Institutional Scientific Review Board Asan Memorial Dental College and Hospital. People above 18 years of age were included in the study. Self administered validated questionnaire which consists of data on demographic profile followed by assessing COVID-19 related information, acceptance, attitude and awareness on COVID-19 vaccine were assessed. Results: A questionnaire survey was conducted among N=274 adults, aged above 18 years, in the present study, n=142 (51.8%) were male and n=132 (48.2%) were female. The majority of n=225 (82.1%) participants showed good knowledge, awareness and attitude towards covid-19 vaccine and almost n=210 (76.6%) were willing to take the vaccine without hesitation. Although maximum respondents demonstrated a good level of knowledge and acceptance, significant differences were observed across gender. Conclusions: The findings reflect satisfactory knowledge and positive attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccine among the general population. Awareness campaigns, feedback from vaccinated individuals about the safety will encourage the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

From various studies by epidemiologist, the virus will continue to rage further across the globe, raising the death tolls day by day. The ground strategy followed by most countries around the world was to reduce the Department of Public Health Dentistry, Asan Memorial Dental College and Hospital, Chengalpet, Tamil Nadu, India transmissibility of the disease, often by nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), including enforcing masks policy, hands sanitization, social distancing, travel restrictions, schools closure, and partial or complete lockdowns. 1 People are desperate to get rid of this pandemic and mass vaccination seems to be a promising measure.
Vaccines are one of the most reliable and cost-effective public health intervention ever implemented that are saving millions of lives each year. 1 In such situations, acquiring immunity against the virus becomes essential. Immunity can be acquired in two ways, either naturally or through vaccine. In the current pandemic, the role of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine will be very vital in the fight against COVID-19. 2 More than 1000 million doses of COVID 19 Vaccines have been administered in India, Covishield and Covaxin have been administered more commonly in India. Despite immense efforts made to develop a safe and effective vaccine, people are hesitant to accept the vaccine. Arrival of any vaccine confronts plenty of issues. Vaccine acceptance is a social tool which plays an important role for advent, implementation and continuation of any vaccination programme. 2 The study is conducted with the objective to find the awareness about COVID-19 vaccine and acceptance among general population in Chengalpet district, Tamil Nadu.

METHODS
A cross sectional study was conducted in the year of 2021 from department of Public Health Dentistry, Asan Memorial Dental College and Hospital. A total number of N=274 people are participated in the study. Sample size was estimated using Epi Info based on the vaccine acceptance data in the study conducted by Tarnam in Jordan. 1 Prior the start of study approval is being obtained from Institutional Scientific Review Board Asan Memorial Dental College and Hospital. The participants were general population who are residing at Chengalpet district. People above 18 years of age willing to participate were included in the study, people with mental disturbances were excluded.
Survey instrument consist of self administered validated questionnaire which consist of data on demographic profile followed by assessing COVID-19 related information, acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine, attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine and awareness on COVID-19 vaccine. The questionnaire was in the form of closedended questions with yes, no and not sure options.
Statistical analysis was carried out by Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23 to compute the frequencies and to compare the attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccine across the gender using chi-square test.

RESULTS
A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge and awareness towards COVID19 vaccination among adults in Chengalpet district. N=274 adults aged more than 18 years participated in the present study, n=142 (51.8%) were male and n=132 (48.2%) were female.      Table 4 represents the attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccine between genders. When comparing the attitude between males and females, male population showed more positive attitude than females towards COVID-19 vaccines while responding to COVID-19 vaccines ability to prevent the disease, immunity from COVID-19 vaccine, safety of taking vaccine for infected person and possibility of spreading the disease from vaccine recipient. All this above results showed statistically significant results. Both males and females showed positive attitude while asking the equal effectiveness between the variants of vaccines that are available now in India.

DISCUSSION
The success of COVID-19 vaccination drive depends on the acceptance of the vaccine among the general population. It is important to find the vaccine acceptance. Following a systematic methods, we have developed a self validated questionnaire to assess and evaluate. The questionnaire will enable us to interpret vaccine acceptance, assessing the knowledge and attitude related to the COVID-19 vaccine. In this questionnaire, the knowledge of people regarding the COVID-19 vaccine was assessed by asking various questions related to cause of disease, eligibility of different population groups and types of vaccine available, within which the vaccine could provide protective immunity against the virus. Along with this, the attitude of people towards the vaccine was assessed by interpreting their willingness to get vaccinated. The willingness among male and female population to receive vaccines are compared.
According to Kumari et al participants had a fair idea about the eligibility of different target groups for the vaccination as nearly three-fourths of the participants knew that adults aged over 18 years (78.11%) and recovered COVID patients (75.12%) were eligible for the vaccine. Majority of the participants were willing to get vaccinated (59.21%) by comparing with our study n=210 (76.6%) willing to take vaccine and n=227 (82.8%) knew covid-19 recovered patients are eligible for the vaccine. Which shows the participants in our study also aware of vaccination eligibility and majority are willing to take the vaccine. This study conducted by Kumari et al support our study. 6 According to Marwa et al the majority of the participants (94%) agreed that the vaccine is not for people less than 18 years of age. The majority of the participants (86.5%) said that those recovering from corona virus can receive the vaccine after approximately 3 months. 91.9% knew that the current infection with corona virus is one of the main contraindications to vaccination. The majority of the participants (88%) answered that they will take the vaccine if available. 93% believed that the vaccine will eradicate the coronavirus pandemic and 96% answered that the vaccine is the best way to protect against the coronavirus and its complications. According to Suresh et al significant difference was documented for the knowledge level vis-à-vis the demographical variables of age, marital status, education status, and occupation category. Overall, two out of ten exhibited poor knowledge level. This was associated more with the participants of the feminine gender, young age (18-29), lesser education status, students' category and those dwelling in the rural area. Seven out of ten responded that they will take the COVID-19 vaccine, while one out of ten disagreed, and two out of ten chose neither.

CONCLUSION
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge the lives of global population; the COVID-19 vaccine seems to be a promising measure to eradicate the pandemic. The present study reveals that majority population showed satisfactory knowledge regarding coronavirus and its vaccine and 76% of participants showed acceptance and willingness of vaccine. Despite adequate knowledge and acceptance, more than 20% of participants showed hesitancy towards vaccine. Although maximum respondents demonstrated a good level of knowledge 82% and acceptance, significant differences were observed among gender where males showed more acceptance than females. The results suggest that more emphasis should be placed on people with lower socioeconomic status, less educated and women. Awareness campaigns, feedback from vaccinated individuals about the safety will encourage the covid-19 vaccine acceptance.