Abstract:
Background: Vaccination intent is defined as the willingness to get vaccinated against a COVID-19 pandemic in a
situation where the vaccine is available at no cost. Nevertheless, even with the availability of COVID-19 vaccines,
some part of the public is not expected to get vaccinated, mainly due to a phenomenon known as vaccine
hesitancy or lack of intention. Furthermore, there is little information available on the intention of people with
chronic medical conditions about the COVID-19 vaccines in Ethiopia.
Objective: The study aimed to assess the intent to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and its associated factors
among adults with a chronic medical condition.
Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 15 to March 15, 2021. Simple
random sampling was employed to get representative samples. Data were collected by using a structured
questionnaire through face to face interviews. The data were entered by Epi Info version 7 and analyzed with
SPSS version 20. The data were analyzed by using binary logistic regression. Those variables with a P-value of ≤
0.05 were considered significantly associated with the outcome variable.
Result: In this study, 423 study participants took part with a response rate of 100%. The mean age of the study
participants was 50.07 (SD ± 13.7) with a range of 18–85 years. The intention to get vaccinated against the
COVID-19 pandemic was 63.8% [95% CI (58.6–68.2)]. In the multivariable analysis the variables, retiring from
the job was [AOR = 2.65, 95% CI (1.02–10.35)], having health insurance coverage [AOR = 1.38, 95%CI
(1.04–3.65)], being in the high socio-demographic status [AOR = 1.67, 95%CI (1.01–2.78)], being confident
with the Country’s health care system [AOR = 2.00, 95%CI (1.15–3.49)], and having good knowledge about
COVID-19 [AOR = 6.59, 95% CI (4.02–10.78)] were significant predictors of intent to get vaccinated against
COVID-19 pandemic compared.
Conclusion: The intention of getting vaccinated against the COVID-19 pandemic was relatively low. There has to
be a great effort by the health caregivers as well as the government to increase vaccination intake, particularly
for these priority group
