Publication:

Willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine booster among general population of India: an online cross sectional study

Background Booster dose for COVID-19 vaccine is being administered by many countries and has recently been started by India for special groups. Hence, it is important to understand the willingness of people to receive the booster dose and factors associated with it.

Methods The present study was a community based Online Cross-sectional study done by using internet based social media applications for a period of 10 days from 6th January to 15th January 2022.

Results Out of which 70.6% were willing to receive the booster, 7.6% were not willing and 21.8% were undecided. Reasons for willingness were the belief to boost immunity (61.3%), protection from new variants (45.9%), reduced severity of infection (43.2%) or hospitalization (42.8%).

Conclusions The main reasons for unwillingness were, being unsure about its benefits (59.7%), fear of side effects (26.5%) and no trust on vaccine for protection against new variants (26.5%). People with higher education, history of COVID-19 infection or hospitalization among family and those perceiving more severe infections by new variants were more willing to get the booster.