Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is defined as illness caused by a novel coronavirus now called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; formerly called 2019-nCoV), which was first identified amid an outbreak of respiratory illness cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. Diabetes is one of the major comorbidities associated with severe COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and mortality.
Aim: This study determined the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccination, associated factors and attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination among diabetics, reason for doing so will help to design strategies to increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake among diabetics.
Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study which was conducted at Bugando medical Centre(BMC) in Mwanza region. Participants was recruited from diabetic outpatient clinic. Through random sampling, the size drawn from diabetics was determined using the Leslie and Kish formula giving a sample size of 247 participants, however to minimize the effect of withdrawals the sample size will be increased to 267.Through a structured questionnaire a history of COVID-19 vaccination, factors associated with willingness to vaccinate and attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination was obtained directly from the patient. Patients files were also used as collection tool for clinical data such as co-morbidities. Participants were approached, informed about the objectives and their consent to participate in the study was requested. Confidentiality was assured and participants were allowed if they so wish to withdraw from the study at any time.
Data Analysis: Data from questionnaire were coded, checked, entered and analyzed using SPSS for window version 20.0. Vaccination rates was shown as percentage, attitudes were represented by bar charts while associated factors were determined by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: 267 diabetic patients attending outpatient department were involved in this study whereby male were 120(44.9%), female were 147(55.1%) and most of them were having age ranging 40 to 60 years old (48. 3%).Diabetics who received COVID-19 vaccines were 78(29.2%) and 189(70.8%) diabetic patients were not vaccinated against COVID-19. From the total of 267 of the sample size 54(20.2%) were worried about the future side effects from the vaccine, 52(19.5%) believed on other non-vaccine measures to be effective, 45(16.9%) had mistrust on vaccine safety and 16(6%) think that COVID-19 is not a severe disease. From the study there were association between gender and vaccination status (95%CL P-0.029), COVID-19 vaccines status and employment status (95% CL P-0.04), whereby most people who retired were more vaccinated in comparison to others. Also, those who were married were more vaccinated in comparison to the those who were not married (95%CL P-0.03).Attitude has been seen as one among the barriers toward COVID-19 vaccination as 174(65%) of diabetics had poor perception towards vaccines
Conclusion: COVID-19 infection has debilitating and potentially life-threatening complications. and because of the bidirectional relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes Its therefore important to advocate the COVID 19 vaccine among individuals with diabetes mellitus in order to counter vaccine hesitancy and misconceptions due to conspiracy theory and other misinformation