Vaccine Hesitancy and Factors Related to Vaccine Hesitancy in COVID-19 Vaccination among a Tribal Community of Meghalaya: A Mixed Methods Study

Vaccine hesitancy should be dealt as an important issue as it carries both individual- and community-level risks; however, it lacks proper assessment in particular among the indigenous tribal population. A community-based sequential explanatory mixed methods study was conducted among 238 eligible individuals in Ri-Bhoi district, Meghalaya. The quantitative part involved a cross-sectional study to determine the proportion of vaccine hesitancy and the qualitative part comprised in-depth interviews among the eligible residents and key informant interviews among the health workers providing the vaccination services, to explore the facilitators and barriers of vaccine uptake. A total of 113 [47.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 41.0%-54.0%)] participants were found to be hesitant to vaccination, among which 16.8% (95% CI: 12.4%-22.3%) were initially hesitant and 30.7% (95% CI: 24.9%-37.0%) had vaccine refusal. The themes generated through qualitative interviews were individual-related, disease-related, vaccine-related, healthcare system and provider related and socio-cultural and religious. The main barriers for the likelihood of action were perceived susceptibility and perceived severity under the individual perception along with ambiguity aversion, scepticism about the efficacy, mistrust, concerns on side effects, rumors, and socio-cultural and religious misbeliefs. Vaccine hesitancy is found to be considerably higher and it depends on complacency toward the vaccine, confidence in its safety, perceived susceptibility to the disease and perceived severity to the disease coupled with modifying factors for cues for action. Healthcare workers should better communicate to improve the uptake of vaccines by reducing the barriers to the vaccine acceptance.