Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 12:10:23743735231183673.
doi: 10.1177/23743735231183673. eCollection 2023.

Vaccine Hesitancy and Factors Related to Vaccine Hesitancy in COVID-19 Vaccination among a Tribal Community of Meghalaya: A Mixed Methods Study

Shanthosh P Sundaram  1 , Ningombam J Devi  1 , Markordor Lyngdoh  1 , Gajendra K Medhi  1 , Wallambok Lynrah  1
Affiliations

Vaccine Hesitancy and Factors Related to Vaccine Hesitancy in COVID-19 Vaccination among a Tribal Community of Meghalaya: A Mixed Methods Study

Shanthosh P Sundaram et al. J Patient Exp. .

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy should be dealt as an important issue as it carries both individual- and community-level risks; however, it lacks proper assessment in particular among the indigenous tribal population. A community-based sequential explanatory mixed methods study was conducted among 238 eligible individuals in Ri-Bhoi district, Meghalaya. The quantitative part involved a cross-sectional study to determine the proportion of vaccine hesitancy and the qualitative part comprised in-depth interviews among the eligible residents and key informant interviews among the health workers providing the vaccination services, to explore the facilitators and barriers of vaccine uptake. A total of 113 [47.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 41.0%-54.0%)] participants were found to be hesitant to vaccination, among which 16.8% (95% CI: 12.4%-22.3%) were initially hesitant and 30.7% (95% CI: 24.9%-37.0%) had vaccine refusal. The themes generated through qualitative interviews were individual-related, disease-related, vaccine-related, healthcare system and provider related and socio-cultural and religious. The main barriers for the likelihood of action were perceived susceptibility and perceived severity under the individual perception along with ambiguity aversion, scepticism about the efficacy, mistrust, concerns on side effects, rumors, and socio-cultural and religious misbeliefs. Vaccine hesitancy is found to be considerably higher and it depends on complacency toward the vaccine, confidence in its safety, perceived susceptibility to the disease and perceived severity to the disease coupled with modifying factors for cues for action. Healthcare workers should better communicate to improve the uptake of vaccines by reducing the barriers to the vaccine acceptance.

Keywords: COVID vaccination; in-depth interview; key informant interview; vaccine hesitancy; vaccine refusal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Vaccine hesitancy among the study participants (N = 238).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Conceptual framework of health belief model (1998).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wolfe RM, Sharp LK. Anti-vaccinationists past and present. Br Med J. 2002;325(7361):430-2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (WHO). Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy. WHO. Accessed on July 02, 2022. Available at:http://www.who.int/immunization/programmes_systems/vaccine_hesitancy/en/.
    1. World Health Organization (WHO). Ten threats to global health in 2019. Geneva, Switz: WHO. Accessed on July 02, 2021. Available at:www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019.
    1. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). Cumulative Coverage Report of COVID-19 Vaccination. MoHFW. Accesssed on July 02, 2021. Available at:https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/CumulativeCovidVaccinationCoverageReport27t....
    1. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Cumulative | Coverage Report of COVID-19 Vaccination | GOI” (PDF). Available at:www.mohfw.gov.in. Last accessed on: 17 June 2022.

LinkOut - more resources