A nationwide survey of the potential acceptance and determinants of COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana

PURPOSE: Safe and effective vaccine together with better treatment remains one of the strategic exist of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As in many other countries worldwide, the government of Ghana has expressed its commitment to procuring globally approved and accepted vaccines. This preliminary study aims to analyses these factors that could impact the choice of the vaccine in Ghana. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,000 Ghanaian respondents from the 14th October to the 12th of December 2020. A structured questionnaire after a series of literature review and was transcribed unto google forms. Dataset was extracted using Excel ver. 2016 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) and imported into IBM SPSS ver. 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) for analysis. Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations and logistic regression analyses were conducted at p-value <0.05. RESULTS: The results showed that 541 (54.1%) of the respondents would opt for the vaccines, 907 (90.7%) trusted the healthcare system and 388 (38.8%) had a high-risk perception of acquiring COVID-19. Our inferential analysis found that being married (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10–4.78), salary worker (private: aOR, 2.24; 95% CI, 0.85–5.89; government: aOR, 42.58; 95% CI, 14.09–128.61), and high-risk perception (aOR, 5.35; 95% CI, 3.24–8.82) had a higher OR of accepting COVID-19 vaccine. CONCLUSION: As the government of Ghana prepares to secure COVID-19 vaccines, it is important to understand the state of mind and determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in the general population. Policymakers and stakeholders should focus on evidence-based community messaging to improve uptake and break the transmission dynamics.