Background: The fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has continued to threaten human existence globally, has led to the development of vaccines in order to control the rate of infection and death associated with the disease. Media messages on the COVID-19 vaccine are geared towards raising audience awareness and understanding of health risks, knowledge and attitudes about the vaccine safety.
Objective: The study examined the knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine safety media messages amongst residents of South East, Nigeria.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 399 respondents (18– 47 years) in both urban and rural communities of South East, Nigeria from May 6th to July 4th, 2021. The survey was carried out using structured self administered questionnaire containing the respondents’ demographics, knowledge and attitudes towards media messages regarding COVID-19 vaccine safety. The data were analysed using the SPSS version 26 software. Result was presented in frequencies, percentages and charts showing the interrelatedness of the variables examined. Regression ANOVA was used to test hypotheses on the extent to which level of exposure to COVID-19 media messages predict their knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine safety at P< 0.05 level of significance.
Results: Data indicate respondents are apprehensive of taking the COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately, 91% of respondents are between the ages of 18 and 27 years. Meanwhile, 26.1% of the respondents agreed that media messages on COVID-19 vaccine is very assuring and convincing as regards human safety; 42.4% disagreed on the safety of COVID-19 vaccine safety messages; 26.1% rated vaccine messages as moderate as regards human safety, while 5.5% rated the vaccine messages as poor. Knowledge of respondents regarding the safety of the vaccine was low and respondents’ attitude was negative in South East, Nigeria. The implication is indicative of the failure of the main stream media in educating the general public on pertinent health issues relevant to them.
Conclusion: Knowledge regarding media messages on COVID-19 vaccine safety is low. Messages on COVID-19 vaccine safety were not sufficient and convincing. Consequently, there is a negative attitude towards the vaccine. Hence, improving knowledge and adoptive attitude amongst respondents amidst COVID-19 is critical.



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传达 COVID-19 疫苗安全性：尼日利亚东南部居民的知识和态度

背景：与持续威胁全球人类生存的冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 的斗争导致了疫苗的开发，以控制与该疾病相关的感染率和死亡率。有关 COVID-19 疫苗的媒体信息旨在提高观众对健康风险的认识和理解，以及对疫苗安全的知识和态度。
目的：该研究调查了尼日利亚东南部居民对 COVID-19 疫苗安全媒体信息的知识和态度。
方法：2021 年 5 月 6 日至 7 月 4 日，对尼日利亚东南部城市和农村社区的 399 名受访者（18-47 岁）进行了横断面描述性研究。该调查使用包含受访者的结构化自我管理问卷进行' 人口统计、知识和对有关 COVID-19 疫苗安全性的媒体信息的态度。使用SPSS 26版软件对数据进行分析。结果以频率、百分比和图表的形式呈现，显示了所检查变量的相互关联性。回归方差分析用于检验关于 COVID-19 媒体信息暴露水平在多大程度上预测他们对 COVID-19 疫苗安全性的知识和态度的假设，显着性水平为P < 0.05。
结果：数据表明，受访者担心服用 COVID-19 疫苗。大约 91% 的受访者年龄在 18 至 27 岁之间。同时，26.1% 的受访者认为，关于 COVID-19 疫苗的媒体信息对于人类安全非常有保证和令人信服；42.4% 不同意 COVID-19 疫苗安全信息的安全性；26.1% 的人认为疫苗信息对人类安全的影响中等，而 5.5% 的人认为疫苗信息很差。在尼日利亚东南部，受访者对疫苗安全性的了解很少，受访者的态度是消极的。这表明主流媒体未能就与其相关的健康问题对公众进行教育。
结论：关于 COVID-19 疫苗安全性的媒体信息的知识很少。关于 COVID-19 疫苗安全性的信息不够充分和令人信服。因此，人们对疫苗持消极态度。因此，在 COVID-19 中提高受访者的知识和采用态度至关重要。