Uptake of the COVID-19 Vaccination and its Contributed Factors among Reproductive-aged Women in the Northeast Ethiopia in 2022

Ethiopia plans to immunize 20% of its population by the end of 2021. However, there is little data available on the vaccine's current uptake in our nation.  This study aimed to assess the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination and its contributors among reproductive-aged women in Dessie Town, Northeast Ethiopia, in 2022.

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Dessie town, northeast Ethiopia, on February 2022. A multiple-stage stratified sampling method was employed to select 636 reproductive-aged women. A pretested researcher-made, semi structured questionnaire was administered by an interviewer to collect the data.  Data were entered into the Epi-data version 4.4.2.1 program and exported to the software SPSS version 25 for additional analysis. Bivariable logistic regression was performed to ascertain the association between each independent variable. 

From 636 surveyed reproductive-aged women, 114 (18.1% (95% CI, 15.3%, 21.3%)) uptake the COVID-19 vaccination. Factors such as urban residency (AOR=3.24, 95% CI 1.74, 6.03), primary educational level (AOR=3.66, 95% CI 1.64, 1.71), having children (AOR=2.16, 95% CI 1.32, 3.55), confirmed medical problems (AOR=4.94, 95% CI 2.45, 9.97), favourable attitude (AOR=4.01, 95% CI 2.38, 6.77), and practice of prevention strategies (AOR=3.36, 95% CI 1.91, 5.91) were contributed to the use of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The magnitude of uptake of COVID-19 vaccination is still low. Therefore, addressing the information regarding the vaccine to all women will be important.