Ebola vaccine? Family first! Evidence from using a brief measure on Ebola vaccine demand in a national household survey during the outbreak in Sierra Leone Show others and affiliations
2020 (English) In: Vaccine, ISSN 0264-410X, E-ISSN 1873-2518, Vol. 38, no 22, p. 3854-3861Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Sustainable development Sustainable Development
Abstract [en]
Background: Vaccination against Ebolavirus is an emerging public health tool during Ebola Virus Disease outbreaks. We examined demand issues related to deployment of Ebolavirus vaccine during the 2014–2015 outbreak in Sierra Leone. Methods: A cluster survey was administered to a population-based sample in December 2014 (N = 3540), before any Ebola vaccine was available to the general public in Sierra Leone. Ebola vaccine demand was captured in this survey by three Likert-scale items that were used to develop a composite score and dichotomized into a binary outcome to define high demand. A multilevel logistic regression model was fitted to assess the associations between perceptions of who should be first to receive an Ebola vaccine and the expression of high demand for an Ebola vaccine. Results: The largest proportion of respondents reported that health workers (35.1%) or their own families (29.5%) should receive the vaccine first if it became available, rather than politicians (13.8%), vaccination teams (9.8%), or people in high risk areas (8.2%). High demand for an Ebola vaccine was expressed by 74.2% of respondents nationally. The odds of expressing high demand were 13 times greater among those who said they or their families should be the first to take the vaccine compared to those who said politicians should be the first recipients (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 13.0 [95% confidence interval [CI] 7.8–21.6]). The ultra-brief measure of the Ebola vaccine demand demonstrated acceptable scale reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.79) and construct validity (single-factor loadings > 0.50). Conclusion: Perceptions of who should be the first to get the vaccine was associated with high demand for Ebola vaccine around the peak of the outbreak in Sierra Leone. Using an ultra-brief measure of Ebola vaccine demand is a feasible solution in outbreak settings and can help inform development of future rapid assessment tools.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages Elsevier, 2020. Vol. 38, no 22, p. 3854-3861
Keywords [en]
Acceptance, Demand, Ebola, Measure, Reliability, Scale, Sierra Leone, Vaccine, Validity, Ebola vaccine, adolescent, adult, Article, construct validity, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Ebolavirus, epidemic, family, female, health care delivery, health care need, health care personnel, health survey, high risk population, human, Likert scale, logistic regression analysis, major clinical study, male, medical assessment, patient selection, priority journal, public figure, young adult
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-48775 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.03.044 ISI: 000528840000006 PubMedID: 32291102 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85083053311 Local ID: ;intsam;1434662 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-48775 DiVA, id: diva2:1434662
2020-06-032020-06-032025-02-20 Bibliographically approved