Impact of implemented vaccination strategies on vaccine uptake and attitude of final year pharmacy students toward COVID-19 vaccines in Gezira State, Sudan

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy is a global threat to public health. Hesitant individuals pose a major concern, as they can be viewed as a source of infection, which may lead to another outbreak. Effective strategies are needed to increase uptake, decrease hesitancy, and achieve herd immunity. This study aims to identify the impact of implemented strategies on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake among final-year pharmacy students, and their acceptance and attitudes towards mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. An anonymous, internet-based cross-sectional study was developed using Google Forms and administered to final-year pharmacy students (254) at all pharmacy colleges in Wad Medani city, Sudan between August and September 2022. Overall, 30.7 % of students were hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The majority of students, 69.3 %, were already vaccinated and 60.9 % of them were initially hesitant about getting the vaccine but eventually did so. Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine was significantly associated with the institution students attended (p < 0.001). Institutions that had implemented encouraging vaccination strategies had a higher percentage of vaccinated students: 84.2 % and 77.1 %, compared to the institution that did not adopt any vaccination strategies 28.3 %. Availability of COVID-19 vaccines to students (OR 1.67 CI (0.70–3.96)), and encouraging COVID-19 vaccination in a way close to mandatory (OR 4.29, CI (1.85–9.96)) had the highest odds in increasing the vaccination uptake. While, not implementing any vaccination strategy (OR 0.24, CI (0.07–0.85) was less likely to increase vaccination uptake. Also, it was found that 72.5 % of students would accept mandatory vaccination for COVID-19. This study provides policymakers with evidence-based strategies that could increase the uptake and decrease hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines among a group of university students. Policymakers should encourage all universities to provide COVID-19 vaccines to their students, either through clinics or vaccination campaigns, and consider mandating the COVID-19 vaccine.