Attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines to support the achievement of government targets: A case study of Bontang city

Abstract

The vaccination program launched by the Indonesian government is the fastest and best solution to overcome the pandemic before finding a cure for COVID-19. Unwillingness to receive vaccinations a major barrier for the Indonesian government to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve the target of 70% of the total population in Indonesia receiving the vaccine. In this study, we estimate predictors of six domains of unwillingness to receive COVID- 19 vaccinations or negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines in the Bontang city. That predictors are gender, age, income, profession, marital status, and level of education. The Binary logistic regression analysis in this study was used to find the predictors effect of COVID-19 vaccine’s attitudes in Bontang city. A total of 500 participants in the Bontang city completed the survey. The public unwillingness to receive COVID-19 vaccinations in Bontang city was still high (26,2%). There are effect age (≤ 25 years: p=0.002, OR=1.651; 36 - 45 years: p=0.006, OR=1.015; > 55 years: p=0.006, OR=1.016), income (≤ 2 million IDR: p=0.016, OR=8.816; 2.1- 3.5 million IDR: p=0.002, OR=6.216), profession (farmer: p=0.015, OR=5.876; fisherman: p=0.007, OR=6.168; employee: p=0.003, OR=3.161; laborer: p=0.045, OR=5.361), marital status (married: p=0.004, OR= 3.936; single: p=0.016, OR=3,973; divorced :0.001, p=0.007, OR=5.148 ), and level of education (elementary school: p=0.032, OR=2.787; junior high school: p=0.006, OR=2.420) to COVID-19 vaccine’s attitudes in Bontang city. The novel to this study is that we also specifically examined factors that predict uncertainty and unwillingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in Bontang City. Persuasive approach and public health massaging should be continued and tailored to address these concerns, especially to certain ages, certain professions, marital statuses, and people with lower levels of education and incomes.