Knowledge, Attitude and Perception among CoWin Registered Healthcare Professionals towards COVID -19 Vaccines in Southern India

Abstract

The world free of COVID 19 is the earliest covet yet requires constant effort to accomplish. There are massive vaccination drives across the globe to control the pandemic. Awareness towards vaccination program was meant for promoting the general public to administer the nationally available vaccines. The main aim of the study was to gain knowledge and feedback from the healthcare team on the COVID 19 vaccination program and to educate and counsel the participants on the essentiality of immunization. Methods: A prospective observational study conducted by means of a validated structured questionnaire. The survey tool composed of total 23 closed ended questions divided into four sections i.e., socio-demographic, knowledge, attitude, and perception. Excluding the dropouts during the survey, we obtained 568 respondents willing to participate and were directly interviewed. Among the respondents, 97.4% had good knowledge and 78.7% had a positive attitude towards COVID 19 vaccination. Medical professions were with supreme knowledge (χ²=13.411, p value=0.001); however, the positive attitude (χ²=5.376, p value=0.02) was much more among supporting staffs of the hospital. The participants aged between 35 to 49 years had appreciable awareness (χ²=8.022, p value=0.018) and were optimistic (χ²=12.523, p value=0.002) towards the immunization program. The confidence of health workers on the efficacy and safety of vaccines can exclusively benefit the immunization campaign.