Knowledge and attitude of allied health science students towards COVID-19 vaccination from a leading Sri Lankan university - A cross-sectional study

Vaccine hesitancy has been a major challenge in attaining the herd immunity to combat Coronavirus disease – 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore, the study investigated the knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination in a sample of Sri Lankan Allied Health students. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 253 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya. A pre-tested questionnaire prepared as a Google form was used to collect data from the participants. The participants’ responses were recorded and assessed by an established scoring system. The associations between categorical variables and, knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination were analysed using Pearson Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact tests at 95% confidence interval. Of the study participants, only 10% (25/253) had ‘satisfactory’ knowledge scores and 69% (174/253) had ‘satisfactory’ attitude scores regarding COVID-19 vaccination. The study participants’ exposure to clinical training significantly associated with their knowledge on COVID-19 vaccines (p = 0.003). Similarly, study participants’ exposure to clinical training (p = 0.018) and their gender (p = 0.035) significantly associated with their attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination. The females had significantly positive attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination. The finding reflects inadequate knowledge but more positive attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination among Allied Health Science students. Thus, indicating the need to educate the Allied Health Science students regarding COVID-19 vaccination to overcome the vaccine hesitancy and to improve the vaccine acceptance rate.