COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy trends in Ghana: a cross-sectional study exploring the roles of political allegiance, misinformation beliefs, and sociodemographic factors

Abstract

Introduction: Africa has the slowest COVID-19 vaccination rate of any continent in the world, with only 29.8% of the population receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. This includes Ghana, where only 37.8% of the country have received at least one dose as of October, 2022. The key aims of this research were to determine levels of hesitancy in COVID-19 vaccines among unvaccinated individuals in Ghana and observe their trends across time, and to identify independent predictors associated with vaccine hesitancy among unvaccinated individuals.

Methods: four online cross-sectional surveys of Ghanaian citizens were conducted in August, 2020 (N = 3048), March, 2021 (N = 1558), June, 2021 (N = 1295), and February, 2022 (N = 424).

Results: overall hesitancy decreased from 36.8% (95% CI: 35.1%-38.5%) in August, 2020 to 17.2% (95% CI: 15.3%-19.1%) in March, 2021. However, hesitancy increased to 23.8% (95% CI: 21.5%-26.1%) in June, 2021, and then again to 52.2% (95% CI: 47.4%-57.0%) in February, 2022. Key reasons included not having enough vaccine-related information (50.6%) and concerns over vaccine safety (32.0%). Hesitant groups included Christians, urban dwellers, opposition political party voters, females, individuals who completed higher education, individuals who reported receiving COVID-19 information from internet sources, and individuals who expressed uncertainty about commonly-circulated COVID-19 misinformation beliefs.

Conclusion: hesitancy rates among unvaccinated individuals in Ghana continues to rise. However, vaccine awareness strategies are sensitive to subpopulation characteristics. Many are reachable through targeted communication strategies, to which campaigns must focus on resolving vaccine-related concerns to ensure high vaccine uptake across Ghana.