Awareness, Perception and Acceptance of Malaria Vaccine among Women of the Reproductive Age Group in a rural community in Soba, Kaduna State, North-west Nigeria.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Malaria vaccine is one of the novel strategies currently being evaluated for use in malaria control in children under five. Objectives: The study aimed to determine the awareness, perception and acceptance of malaria vaccine among women of the reproductive age group in a rural community in Soba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, North-West Nigeria. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study and total population sampling was used to recruit 236 women aged between 15-49 years. The data were collected using an open data kit (ODK-1) mounted on android tablets and entered into International Business Machine Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) version 23 Software. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between the predictor and the outcome variables. A p-value of less than or equal to 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Only 131 (56%) of the subjects ever heard about malaria vaccines. Of these, 95 (72.5%) knew that the vaccine could prevent malaria and 104 (96.8%) believe that the vaccine was necessary for the prevention of malaria. Further, 89 (67.9%) subjects among those aware of the vaccine would voluntarily allow their children to get vaccinated and 93 (71%), would recommend the vaccines for others. Similarly, 98 (74.8%) of those aware of the vaccine would recommend the vaccine for the National Program on Immunisation. Conclusion: The awareness of the malaria vaccine in the subjects was low while the perception and acceptability of the vaccine were high. None of the risk factors investigated was independently related to awareness of the vaccine. Public enlightenment and further qualitative studies to explore a context-specific perception of the malaria vaccines are recommended.