Acceptance and willingness to pay for COVID-19 vaccine among school teachers in Gondar City, Northwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUNDVaccination is one of the strategies to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and cost are important factors affecting its uptake. However, little is known about acceptance and willingness to pay (WTP) for the vaccine. OBJECTIVEThis study aimed to assess acceptance and WTP for the COVID-19 vaccine and its associated factors among school teachers. METHODSAn institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among school teachers. A stratified simple random sampling technique was employed to select the participants. The contingent valuation method was used to assess each respondent's willingness to pay for the COVID-19 vaccination. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was employed to identify significant factors associated with WTP for the COVID-19 vaccine. A p value of less than 0.05 and a 95% confidence interval were used to declare statistical significance. RESULTA total of 301 school teachers participated with a response rate of 99.6%. The mean age of participants was 39.5 (SD ± 8.7 years). The mean WTP for the COVID-19 vaccine is US$ 4.98 (± US$ 1.6). Less than half (40.8%) of participants were willing to accept the COVID-19 vaccine whereas only 36.9% (95% CI, (31.6%, 42.5%)) of them were WTP for the vaccine. Being male (AOR = 3.23; 95% CI, (1.70, 6.14)), being a private school teacher (AOR = 3.27; 95% CI, (1.76, 6.10)), having high perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 (AOR = 2.69; 95% CI, (1.38, 5.24)), having high perceived seriousness of COVID-19 (AOR = 4.04; 95% CI, (1.80, 9.1)), and having high perceived benefit of COVID-19 vaccine (AOR = 3.0; 95% CI, (1.41, 6.34) were significant factors associated with WTP for COVID-19 vaccination. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONThe magnitude of acceptance and WTP for the COVID-19 vaccine was low among school teachers. Male sex, private school affiliation, high perceived risk of COVID-19, and benefit of COVID-19 vaccine were the most important factors affecting school teacher's WTP for COVID-19 vaccine. Thus, health communication programs should give due emphasis to raising teacher's perceived risk of COVID-19 and the benefit of the COVID-19 vaccine to improve their acceptance and WTP for the vaccine. Furthermore, subsidizing the cost of the vaccine may improve their WTP.