Demographic Factors Associated with Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccination: An Online Survey-Based Study from Hyderabad Sindh

Background: COVID19 is a major threat to global health. World health organization has proposed use of vaccines against COVID19 to end the pandemic. Due to low literacy rate in many developing countries and disinformation, the population is reluctant for COVID19 vaccination. To explore the demographic factors associated with acceptance of COVID19 vaccination, we set up an online cross-sectional study. Methods: The online survey-based cross-sectional study was conducted to understand the demographic factors of residents of Hyderabad city associated with vaccine acceptance. The questionnaire was divided into sections to get sociodemographic characters and other information related with willingness of vaccination. This questionnaire was sent to 300 people from which 205 people participated. Results: The result showed that 28.8% of the participants were not sure to get vaccination of COVID-19, while 41.5% participants were willing to get vaccine if available; rest of the people (29.8%) were not willing be vaccinated at all. The main reason behind this denial was due to belief on conspiracies against COVID-19 vaccine. Many participants either denied (42%) for any disinformation or were not sure (12%) on this account. Conclusion: The study was based on demographic factors of residents of Hyderabad associated with acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine. Among the studied population only 41.5% showed willingness to get vaccinated which indicate the necessity to effectively educate the population about COVID-19 vaccines