Staff View: A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians

A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians

Background Vaccination is an effective way to curtail the burden of COVID-19 in which success depends on a high acceptance of the vaccine. However, addressing concerns among vaccine-hesitant individuals is essential to avoid failure of the immunisation programme. This study sought to assess the con...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Syed Alwi, S.A.R, Rafidah, Elias, Zurraini, Arabi, Juslina, Omar, Imam, Bux Brohi, Sabrina, Lukas
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	BioMed Central Ltd 2021
Subjects:	RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35750/1/vaccine1.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35750/ https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/ https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11071-6
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my.unimas.ir.35750
record_format	eprints
spelling	my.unimas.ir.357502021-08-05T03:00:04Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35750/ A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians Syed Alwi, S.A.R Rafidah, Elias Zurraini, Arabi Juslina, Omar Imam, Bux Brohi Sabrina, Lukas RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine Background Vaccination is an effective way to curtail the burden of COVID-19 in which success depends on a high acceptance of the vaccine. However, addressing concerns among vaccine-hesitant individuals is essential to avoid failure of the immunisation programme. This study sought to assess the concerns and acceptance rates regarding the COVID-19 vaccine among Malaysians. Methods An online questionnaire was distributed to 1411 respondents via a snowball sampling method among Malaysians aged 18 years and above. Results The majority of the respondents were young adults (40.7%), female (62.8%), Malay (63.8%), Muslim (72.3%), married (52.9%), with tertiary education (86.8%) and without medical illness (85%). Social media (97.4%) was the primary source of information regarding COVID-19. The overall acceptance rate was high (83.3%), with the lowest rates among the elderly aged 60 years and above (63.4%) and pensioners (64.6%). Hesitance was caused by concerns regarding side effects (95.8%), safety (84.7%), lack of information (80.9%), effectiveness (63.6%) and religious (20.8%) and cultural factors related to the COVID-19 vaccine (6.8%). Respondents with diabetes mellitus (24.7%) and hypercholesterolemia (23%) were more hesitant to accept the COVID-19 vaccine, at 16.1 and 15.8%, respectively. Predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitance were age, religion, and current residence. Conclusions The results indicate a high rate of acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine among Malaysians. Thus, the Malaysian government and other related agencies should increase their campaign and prepare to implement the COVID-19 mass immunisation programme among Malaysians. However, despite the high acceptance rate, it remains important to address concerns among hesitant individuals by building trust in vaccine safety and effectiveness through adequate information regarding the vaccine. BioMed Central Ltd 2021-06-12 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35750/1/vaccine1.pdf Syed Alwi, S.A.R and Rafidah, Elias and Zurraini, Arabi and Juslina, Omar and Imam, Bux Brohi and Sabrina, Lukas (2021) A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians. BMC Public Health, 21 (1129). pp. 1-12. ISSN 1471-2458 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/ https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11071-6
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building	Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://ir.unimas.my/
language	English
topic	RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
spellingShingle	RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine Syed Alwi, S.A.R Rafidah, Elias Zurraini, Arabi Juslina, Omar Imam, Bux Brohi Sabrina, Lukas A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians
description	Background Vaccination is an effective way to curtail the burden of COVID-19 in which success depends on a high acceptance of the vaccine. However, addressing concerns among vaccine-hesitant individuals is essential to avoid failure of the immunisation programme. This study sought to assess the concerns and acceptance rates regarding the COVID-19 vaccine among Malaysians. Methods An online questionnaire was distributed to 1411 respondents via a snowball sampling method among Malaysians aged 18 years and above. Results The majority of the respondents were young adults (40.7%), female (62.8%), Malay (63.8%), Muslim (72.3%), married (52.9%), with tertiary education (86.8%) and without medical illness (85%). Social media (97.4%) was the primary source of information regarding COVID-19. The overall acceptance rate was high (83.3%), with the lowest rates among the elderly aged 60 years and above (63.4%) and pensioners (64.6%). Hesitance was caused by concerns regarding side effects (95.8%), safety (84.7%), lack of information (80.9%), effectiveness (63.6%) and religious (20.8%) and cultural factors related to the COVID-19 vaccine (6.8%). Respondents with diabetes mellitus (24.7%) and hypercholesterolemia (23%) were more hesitant to accept the COVID-19 vaccine, at 16.1 and 15.8%, respectively. Predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitance were age, religion, and current residence. Conclusions The results indicate a high rate of acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine among Malaysians. Thus, the Malaysian government and other related agencies should increase their campaign and prepare to implement the COVID-19 mass immunisation programme among Malaysians. However, despite the high acceptance rate, it remains important to address concerns among hesitant individuals by building trust in vaccine safety and effectiveness through adequate information regarding the vaccine.
format	Article
author	Syed Alwi, S.A.R Rafidah, Elias Zurraini, Arabi Juslina, Omar Imam, Bux Brohi Sabrina, Lukas
author_facet	Syed Alwi, S.A.R Rafidah, Elias Zurraini, Arabi Juslina, Omar Imam, Bux Brohi Sabrina, Lukas
author_sort	Syed Alwi, S.A.R
title	A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians
title_short	A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians
title_full	A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians
title_fullStr	A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians
title_full_unstemmed	A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians
title_sort	survey on covid-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among malaysians
publisher	BioMed Central Ltd
publishDate	2021
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35750/1/vaccine1.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35750/ https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/ https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11071-6
_version_	1707769256574189568
score	13.211869

A survey on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and concern among Malaysians

Similar Items