A Comparison of the Awareness, Attitude, and Uptake of COVID-19, Hepatitis B Virus, and Yellow Fever Vaccines Between Rural and Urban Respondents in Edo State, Nigeria

Introduction: Despite the target set by WHO, Africa still falls short when it comes to individuals’ use of COVID-19 vaccines. There is a similar pattern of low vaccine usage for the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and yellow fever (YF). Aim and objective: The objective of our study is to compare the awareness, attitude, and uptake of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD), COVID-19, HBV, and YF, between a rural and an urban community in Nigeria. Methodology: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out between January 2022 and December 2022 in a rural community, Okada, and an urban community, Benin, in Edo State, Nigeria. A total of 283 rural participants and 483 urban participants were interviewed. SPSS Statistics version 26 (IBM Corp. Released 2019. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.) was used for data collection and analysis. The significant value was set at P<0.05. Results: A major percentage of both populations, 98.3% urban and 90.1% rural, reported being aware of COVID-19 vaccines (indicated by P<0.001). There was a similar pattern with HBV vaccine awareness. However, awareness of YF vaccines was more common in the rural (63.3%) community than in the urban (55.0%) community. A complete dose uptake of COVID-19 vaccines was reported by 7.7% of the rural and 2.2% of the urban respondents. The major reason for the refusal of vaccine uptake was the fear of possible side effects. Conclusion: The study showed that vaccine uptake for COVID-19, HBV, and YF is low despite seemingly good awareness of these vaccines. The number one reason for any vaccine refusal is the possibility of experiencing side effects.