Choice preference and willingness to pay for COVID-19 vaccination in Namibia

BACKGROUND: Namibia has not been spared from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and as intervention the Namibian government has rolled out vaccination programmes. This study was conducted before the roll out of these vaccines to assess the preference for COVID-19 vaccinations. Stated preference studies provide information about social demand, access, willingness-to-pay and financing for future COVID-19 vaccination. METHODS: A stated choice experiment (SCE) survey was administered to a sample of 506 participants from Namibia's general population between October 2020 and December 2020. Participants were asked to make a series of hypothetical choices and estimate their preference for different attributes of a vaccine. A latent class model was used to analyse the SCE data. The study also assessed anti-vaccination behaviour, past vaccination behaviour, impacts of COVID-19 on mental and physical health and Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) measures. The WTP measures were captured as out-of-pocket and further calculated using the marginal rate of substitution method in SCE. RESULTS: Data from 269 participants was included in the analysis. Vaccine side effects (40.065), population coverage (4.688), payment fee to receive vaccine immediately (3.733) were the top three influential attributes for vaccine preferences. Accordingly, increases in mild and severe side effects of vaccine options had negative impacts on utility; with an average WTP of N$728.26 to reduce serious side effects. The average WTP to receive a high-quality vaccine with 90% efficient was found to be N$233.11 (US$15.14). Across classes, there was a strong preference for vaccines with high effectiveness over longer durations of time. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide useful information for the Namibian government to improve the current strategies for vaccine rollout interventions.