Assessment of the Knowledge Level of COVID-19 Vaccines and Vaccine Hesitancy amongst Final-Year Medical Students in Southeast Nigeria

Background: Despite how ravaging and deadly COVID-19 infection is, vaccine hesitancy is high among the uneducated, medical students, and health workers, who as frontline workers, should lead by example and drive COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Objectives: This research aims to assess the knowledge level of COVID-19 vaccines among final-year medical students in Southeast-Nigeria universities and determine the factors responsible for the hesitancy of this vaccine among them.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study of final-year medical students in six medical schools in Southeast Nigeria using an electronically distributed structured, validated online Google form amongst final-year medical students from which 125 of them responded.

Results: Out of a sample of 125 final-year medical students, 123 (98.4%) are aware of COVID-19 vaccines while 2 (1.6%) lack knowledge of COVID-19 vaccines. The demographics of the final year medical students comprised 68 (58%) males and 57 (45.6%) females, 74.4% (93/125) of the respondents do not have a preference for any vaccine while 25.6% (33/125), shows a preference for various vaccine types. 95 (76%) final year medical students have not been vaccinated as against 30 (24%) who have received the vaccine for the Covid-19 virus, this large gap in the vaccination ratio accounted for many factors ranging from safety, availability, side effects, etc.

Conclusion: The level of awareness of COVID-19 vaccines is very high among final-year medical students but it is not equivalent to the level of uptake of the vaccines. Despite being future healthcare professionals, medical students' vaccination rates remain suboptimal, highlighting a significant vaccine hesitancy and a large gap between knowledge and practice. Understanding and addressing these underlying factors is crucial to improving vaccine uptake and ensuring that medical students, as future healthcare leaders, are equipped to promote evidence-based public health practice.