Effects of perceived susceptibility Covid-19 television messages on vaccine adoption behaviour among youths in Kiambu County

Abstract

Covid-19 is the recent global health pandemic which has caused a lot of deaths across the globe. The pandemic severity ranged from mild to severe with risks increasing with age. One of the notable interventionsin increasing vaccine measures and adoption of the protocols put in place was through communication. The television was fast in sharing messages pertaining to the likelihood of contraction. These messages swayed public opinion resulting in different behavioral patterns, and for this, case adoption or rejection of different Covid-19 vaccines. As such the study aimed at investigating the effects of perceived susceptibility Covid-19 television messages on vaccine adoption behavior among youths in Kiambu County. The study adopted mixed method methodology, such that the data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively for validity. The qualitative data was derived from news items on Covid-19 for Citizen TV, NTV and KTN. Further 346 respondents participated in the questionnaires. From the Categorization analysis 98.5% youths felt susceptible while 1.5 % unsusceptible. The Chi square test returned a statistically insignificant results (x2=0.408, df=1, p=0.412), odds ratio [AOR: 2.1, 95% CI] and analysis of variance regarding the two categories returned insignificant value with p at 0.418. This implied that the perceived susceptibility Covid-19 television messages had no influence on Covid-19 vaccine uptake among youths in Kiambu County.