Wollburg Philip, Markhof Yannick, Kanyanda Shelton, Zezza Alberto
Development Data Group, World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.
UNU-MERIT, United Nations University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Commun Med (Lond). 2023 Sep 11;3(1):121. doi: 10.1038/s43856-023-00330-9.
Despite improved availability of COVID-19 vaccines in Sub-Saharan Africa, vaccination campaigns in the region have struggled to pick up pace and trail the rest of the world. Yet, a successful vaccination campaign in Sub-Saharan Africa will be critical to containing COVID-19 globally.
Here, we present new descriptive evidence on vaccine hesitancy, uptake, last-mile delivery barriers, and potential strategies to reach those who remain unvaccinated. Our data comes from national high frequency phone surveys in six countries in East and West Africa with a total population of 415 million people. Samples were drawn from nationally representative samples of households interviewed in recent in-person surveys. Our estimates are based on a survey module harmonized across countries and are re-weighted to mitigate potential sample selection biases.
We show that vaccine acceptance remains generally high among respondents in Sub-Saharan Africa (between 95.1% and 63.3%) even though hesitancy is non-negligible among those pending vaccination. Many who are willing to get vaccinated are deterred by a lack of easy access to vaccines at the local level. Furthermore, social ties and perceptions as well as intra-household power relations matter for vaccine take-up. Among the unvaccinated population, radio broadcasts have widespread reach and medical professionals are highly trusted.
Our findings highlight that creating a positive social norm around COVID-19 vaccination, messaging that leverages trusted and accessible information sources and channels, and more easily accessible vaccination sites at the community level are promising policy options to boost vaccination campaigns in the region and end the pandemic everywhere.
尽管撒哈拉以南非洲地区新冠疫苗的可及性有所提高，但该地区的疫苗接种运动仍难以加快步伐，落后于世界其他地区。然而，撒哈拉以南非洲地区成功的疫苗接种运动对于全球控制新冠疫情至关重要。
在此，我们提供了关于疫苗犹豫、接种率、最后一公里交付障碍以及针对未接种人群的潜在策略的新描述性证据。我们的数据来自东非和西非六个国家的全国高频电话调查，这些国家总人口达4.15亿。样本取自近期面对面调查中具有全国代表性的家庭样本。我们的估计基于各国统一的调查模块，并进行了重新加权以减轻潜在的样本选择偏差。
我们表明，撒哈拉以南非洲地区的受访者中疫苗接受度总体上仍然较高（在95.1%至63.3%之间），尽管在等待接种的人群中犹豫情绪不可忽视。许多愿意接种疫苗的人因在当地难以轻松获得疫苗而受阻。此外，社会关系和观念以及家庭内部权力关系对疫苗接种也很重要。在未接种疫苗的人群中，广播覆盖面广，医疗专业人员备受信任。
我们的研究结果突出表明，围绕新冠疫苗接种营造积极的社会规范、利用可信且易于获取的信息来源和渠道进行宣传，以及在社区层面提供更便捷的疫苗接种点，是促进该地区疫苗接种运动并在各地终结疫情的有前景的政策选择。
