Background information: The severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 1(SARS-COV-2) has infected over 636 million people and led over 6.61 million deaths globally. The failure of preventive measures to limit the spread of disease has led to the invention of vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson/Janssen that are currently administered in Tanzania. COVID-19 vaccines can offer a route out of the pandemic, yet initial research suggests that many people are unwilling to be vaccinated. In order to maximize the vaccine uptake, it is important to understand the barriers that make people not to vaccinate against COVID-19. People at high risk of acquiring COVID-19 are health professionals including medical students who normally meet patients at hospitals. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and associated barriers to uptake COVID-19 vaccine among medical students at Catholic University of Health and Allied Science (CUHAS).
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students at Catholic University of Health and Allied Science (CUHAS) Mwanza Tanzania from 25 September 2022 to 30 January 2023.Random sampling technique was used to select students from first year to fifth year and a minimum of 285 students were involved the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaires on their demographic data, COVID-19 vaccination status and associated barriers for COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy where by students were requested to fill the questions after accepting the informed consent. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistics 20 and association was calculated using bivariate and p-value was calculated where p-value less than 0.05 is significant
Results: A total number of 285 undergraduate medical students involved in study, male were 143(50.2%), female were 142(49.8%) and most of the students were having age ranging 23 to 27 years old (80.7%). Undergraduate medical students who received COVID-19 vaccines were 43(15.1%) and 242(84.9%) medical students were not vaccinated against COVID-19. Those willing to vaccinated were 159(55.8%) and about 126(44.2%) were not willing to vaccinate against COVID-19. From the total of 285 medical students 38(13.3%) said the vaccines are not effective enough,152(53.3%) were fearing serious side effects of the vaccines, 78(27.4%) were concerned about genetic side effects that may happen in the future, other medical students were worried about sexual side effects where 40(14.0%) were worried about infertility, 34(11.9%) worried about reduce of sexual power and 114(40.0%) medical students were not having enough information concerning COVID-19 vaccines which led them not to vaccinate and about 2(0.7%) students said the vaccination is contraindicated to their religious faith. From the study there were association between genetic side effects in the future and ethnicity(95%CL P-0.04),COVID-19 vaccines effectiveness and academic year of study (95% CL P-0.02),lack of enough information about the vaccines and the gender(95%CL P-0.03) and sexual side effects caused by COVID-19 vaccines and the gender (95%CL P-0.02).
Conclusion: One of the highest groups at risk of acquiring COVID-19 is medical students who normally meet different patients during their rotation studies therefore it is important to identify and address barriers that make them hesitate to vaccinate. Most of medical students showed to have lack of enough information about the way COVID-19 vaccines can reduce the severity of the disease and misconceptions concerning genetic side effects, serious adverse effects and sexual dysfunctions. There is high number of medical students hesitating to vaccinate and these may delay the vaccination program because medical students are among of the people who should be the frontline to emphasis the community on COVID-19 vaccination.