ACCEPTANCE OF COVID-19 VACCINE AND PATTERN OF SIDE EFFECTS IN NEPALESE CONTEXT: A POSTVACCINE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Abstract

Background: First phase of COVID-19 vaccination was initiated in Nepal in January 2021 tar­geting the frontline health care workers. Vaccine side effects have a significant role in public confidence regarding the vaccine and its uptake. We aimed to determine the acceptability and explore the side effects of first dose of ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 (Covishield) vaccine among the health care workers of Chitwan Medical College.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among the health care workers at Chitwan Medi­cal College. Total enumeration sampling technique was used and a self-constructed questionnaire was circulated among the health care workers to self-report their socio-demographic information and vaccination experience. Chi square test was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sci­ences version 20 for statistical analysis and p-value<0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Out of 589 respondents, 537 (91.2%) had received the first dose of Covishield vaccine among which, 424 (78.9%) reported one or more side effects. Majority of them had very mild systemic side effects (55.9%) and injection site related side effects (25.2%). The side effects were more prevalent in <30 years age group than >30 years age group.

Conclusions: Most of the vaccine recipients had very mild side effects which showed that Cov­ishield vaccine has a good safety profile.