UNIVERSITY OF LUSAKA

School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Department of Public Health
Bachelor of Science – Public Health
BSPH323-Health Systems Research and Projects

Assignment

Surname: Nkhata

First Name: Chikongiwe

Student Number: BSPH19116475

E-mail Address: mwambazichiko504@gmail.com

Phone Number: 0979363311

Due Date: 10th March 2023

Lecturer’s Name: Prof. E. Kazonga

 Plagiarism Declaration

Surname Nkhata

Middle Name Chikondi

First Name Chikongiwe

Student Number BSPH19116475

Declaration

1. I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the University’s policy in this

regard.
2. I declare that this Assignment is my own work.
3. I have not consulted or used another student’s work to hand in as my own.
4. I have not allowed, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as
his or her own work.

Signature: C.Nkhata

Date: 26 February 2023

TITLE

Perceptions and attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination among students at University of

Lusaka

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous harm globally, nations were economically
destabilized, lives were lost and the health system was stretched to the limit. The pandemic of
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV 2) has caused a lot of burden on
the health of the people globally and no specific medications are currently available for
COVID-19. Countries continue to record a lot of COVID-19 cases and death worldwide(Zhao
X, et al. 2020). Henceforth, vaccines have been used to help cube the irresistible sicknesses of
COVID-19 and a lot of companies have been in race of trying to provide the best vaccines.
Though a lot of effort was putting in launching the COVID-19 vaccine it took at least 9 months
after the virus was identified to be on the market. Today several COVID-19 vaccines have
been discovered and approved are available for administering in different countries.

According to UNESCO, in 2020, more than 188 countries had implemented nationwide school
and university closures, this impacted over 90% of the world’s student population. University
students have a high risk of contacting and spreading the disease vulnerable people who are
outside the university setting. This is as result of different factors that play a major role in
spreading the virus such as prolonged close contact among high numbers of students during
regular face-to-face teaching, the use of public transport in traveling to and from university,
frequent contacts among students during their everyday lives, and the high levels of mixing in
halls of residence. However, the perspectives of students toward antibodies all in all will be a
significant factor in their ability to acknowledge COVID- 19. In general, vaccine reluctance is
probably going to assume a significant function in COVID- 19 immunization aversion,
particularly, as in more than 90% percent of countries vaccine hesitancy has increased and has
now been described by the WHO as one of the world’s greatest health threats(WHO, 2020).

In Zambia, a lot of people remain hesitant to receiving the vaccines. Therefore it is important
to assess the acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine by the people. Understanding the
perceptions and attitude of the people towards the COVID-19 vaccination campaign will play a
major role in cubing COVID-19. With vaccine rollout in Zambia, it becomes important to
examine people’s acceptability of a COVID- 19 vaccine. However, knowledge about people’s
willingness to get the COVID- 19 vaccine is very limited in Zambia. Thus, this study will try
find out the perception and attitude toward COVID- 19 vaccination among students at
University of Lusaka.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Most countries around the globe are in a flux as a result of COVID-19 in terms of education,
nutrition, food, socio-politics, culture, socio-economics and so on. With the epicenter of the
virus been a lot of countries around the world, as they are recognized as the gateway to the
international arena(Asante and Mills, 2020). As of today this deadly virus has affected
thousands of people globally whilst killing others, Zambia currently stands on 342,317 cases
and 4,051 deaths since the virus was first reported in China(Worldometer, 2023, until February
15). The country continues to suffer from extreme effects of COVID-19, which has negatively
impacted the already deteriorating socio-economic situation. Since 2020 the government in-
conjunction with other organizations have put in a lot of measures to combat the spread of the
coronavirus and one of the benchmark measure has been the introduction of vaccination
campaigns. However, in spite of the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine people(students)
have different views and perceptions about the vaccines. They remain skeptical about the
vaccines and thus they exist an attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

Therefore this study will give an insight about the perceptions of students and attitudes that
exist among them. This is important because it will help the stakeholders understand why there
is a low vaccine rate among students despite making the vaccines available in schools.
Furthermore measures will be put in place to encourage a rise in the number of people
accessing the vaccines. This will in turn help in combating the coronavirus among the students
and the country at large.

OBJECTIVES

GENERAL

To assess the perceptions and attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination among students at
University of Lusaka

SPECIFIC
1. To assess the knowledge of the students about COVID-19 vaccines

2. To assess the attitude of students towards COVID-19 vaccines

3. To assess the beliefs of students about COVID-19 vaccines

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

i. What knowledge exist among students about COVID-19 vaccines?

ii. How are the attitudes of students towards COVID-19 vaccines?

iii. What beliefs do students have about COVID-19 vaccines?

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The Health Belief Model (HBM) was developed in 1966 by Rosenstock’s, it is a theoretical
model which is concerned with health decision-making. Rosenstock in this model stressed
about the conditions under which a person will engage in individual health behaviors such as
preventative screenings or seeking treatment for a health condition (Rosenstock, 1966).

Under the HBM, a person’s likelihood for health behavior is assumed to be related to four main
variables. First, action is more likely if the person perceives himself to be susceptible to or at
risk for the condition. For example, if a student has a relative who has COVID-19 in her family,
he may see himself as more susceptible to catching the coronavirus. Second, the likelihood for
action depends on the perceived seriousness of the condition. Seriousness may be judged based
on the amount of emotional arousal produced by thinking about the condition as well as the
anticipated physical, social, and psychological. Thirdly perceived benefits play a major roe in
health behaviour. It's difficult to convince people to change a behavior if there isn't something
in it for them. People don't want to give up something they enjoy if they don't also get
something in return. For example, A person probably won't stop smoking if they don't think
that doing so will improve their life in some way. Likewise it is difficult to convince students
to take vaccines if you can still get sick despite been vaccinated. Lastly, perceived barriers also
influence health behaviour, people don’t change their health behaviour because they think the
process is going to be hard. Changing health behaviors can require effort, money, and
time(Kirscht, J. P. 1988).
Therefore this theory is perfectly suitable for this study because it will help in understanding
how students perceive health. It will also give an insight on how some of the students have
misconceptions and have failed to accept the vaccines.

STUDY DESIGN

A qualitative approach will be used and the study design will be a Cross-sectional study design
which is a type of observational study design. In this study, the investigator does not alter the
exposure status, but measures the outcome and the exposure(s) in the population, and may
study their association(Hennekens and Buring, 1987). In this study, will measure the outcome
and the exposures to vaccines among UNILUS students at the same time. The participants in
this study will be exclusively full-time and part-time students. The outcome been the attitudes
and perception about the coronavirus vaccination after been exposed to the vaccines.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS

The data will be collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data will be
collected from the students of at universities through an online survey which will include
structured questions. Secondary data will be gathered from a variety of sources including
books, journals and other university publications. The questionnaire will contain three basic
parts i.e. personal information, knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions. We will use an online
survey to collect primary data, so the questionnaire will be constructed in Google Form.

DATA ANALYSIS

The data collected from the questionnaire will be analyzed using, thematic analysis. The data
will be analyzed in accordance with the Clarke and Braun’s thematic analysis is designed,
which is recursive, rather than linear, process in which subsequent steps may prompt the
researcher to circle back to earlier steps in light of new data or newly emerging themes that
merit further investigation. It will be done in six steps, the first step will be getting familiar
with the data that has been collected. The second step will be to create or generate codes from
the data that has been collected. Then after coming up with those codes the third step will
involve examination of the coded and collated data extracts to look for potential themes of
broader significance (Braun and Clarke 2006).
The fourth step will mark the first level of analysis, at this stage will look at coded data placed
within each theme to ensure proper fit. Will then review all relevant codes and data extracts
under each theme and ask questions such as, Does each theme have adequate supporting data?
Are the data included coherent in supporting that theme? Are some themes too large or diverse?
(Attride-Stirling 2001; Braun and Clarke 2006). And then, the data extracts will be re-sorted
and themes modified to better reflect and capture coded data. Themes will then added,
combined, divided, or even discarded.
Thereafter, refining the thematic map in step five, will create a definition and narrative
description of each theme, including why it is important to the broader study question. The
names of themes to be included in the final report will be reviewed to ensure that they are brief
and adequately descriptive. Finally in step six will write up the final analysis and description of
findings (Abide).
REFERENCES

Asante, L. A., & Mills, R. O., 2020. Exploring the socio-economic impact of COVID-19
pandemic in marketplaces in urban Ghana. Africa Spectrum, 55(2), 170-181.

Attride-Stirling, J., 2001. Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative

research. Qualitative research, 1(3), pp.385-405.

Braun, V. and Clarke, V., 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in
psychology, 3(2), pp.77-101.

Hennekens, C.H. and Buring, J.E., 1987. Epidemiology in medicine. In Epidemiology in

medicine (pp. 383-383).

Kirscht, J. P., 1988. The health belief model and predictions of health actions. In D. S.
Gochman (Ed.), Health behavior: Emerging research perspectives (pp. 27–41). New York:
Springer.

Rosenstock, I. M., 1966. Why people use health services. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly,
44, 94–127.

Wolrdometer, 2023. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

World Health Organization, 2020. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Situation report - 168.
Available at: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-
reports/20200706-covid-19- sitrep-168.pdf?sfvrsn=7fed5c0b_2

Zhao X, Zhang B, Li P, Ma C, Gu J, Hou P, et al., 2020. Incidence, clinical characteristics and

prognostic factor of patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.