Factors Influence the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior of Community about COVID-19 Vaccine in Medan City, Indonesia

Abstract

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has been pandemic and causes death worldwide. 905 people died in the capital of North Sumatra, Medan City, Indonesia until November 2021. Medan city was once a red zone including Medan Denai District, the first dose of vaccination coverage was still 60% (1,476,248 people) and the second dose was still 45.8% (1,116,271 people) in November 2021. Public awareness of the importance of COVID-19 vaccination is needed to succeed in vaccination programs and reduce the rate of COVID-19 cases. Nevertheless, research related to public awareness about COVID-19 vaccination was still little done in Medan city. AIM: In this study, we analyzed the factors that influence the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of community about COVID-19 vaccine in Medan Denai District of Medan City. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional study with a validated questionnaire approach in 100 respondents. Data collection were conducted from September to November 2021. The questionnaire consisted of 36 questions to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Statistical analysis was done using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences v.26, p < 0.05 was statistically significant. RESULTS: Knowledge level is sufficient by 50%, good attitude by 99%, good behavior by 82%, the majority of respondents were in the age range of 17–25 years (75%), women (58%), high school education level (63%), jobless (42%), low income (62%), and had a religion (100%). More than 80% of respondents knew the benefits of the vaccine, how the vaccine worked, vaccine brands available in Indonesia, 76% had been vaccinated and 97% agreed to be vaccinated. We found a relation between knowledge with community behavior, education level, and vaccination history with knowledge, religion with community attitudes, and COVID-19 vaccination history with community behavior (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Respondents had sufficient knowledge, good attitudes and good behavior related to the COVID-19 vaccine. The level of education, religion, and COVID-19 vaccination history affected the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of people about the COVID-19 vaccine in Medan Denai District, Medan city, Indonesia.