A Cross-Sectional Study on Perspective of COVID-19 Vaccination among Indian overseas Travelers, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Large numbers of Indian residents travel each year to other countries for various reasons. Considering the accelerated global vaccine development efforts in response to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how Indian overseas travellers perceive the risk associated with COVID-19 vaccination. In view of the "vaccine tourism" being planned by different travel agencies in India, the study becomes even more relevant. This study was therefore performed to determine the COVID-19 vaccination-related knowledge, attitudes, and willingness of Indian overseas travellers.
Methods: Pretested The interviewer administered Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 429 Indian nationals aged 18 years or more, selected by simple random sampling, arriving at Chennai, who had travelled to various overseas destinations, and the results were analysed in SPSS version 16 using statistical tests.
Results: Of all the demographic factors, only source of information about COVID-19 was found to be significant with respect to knowledge of the respondents. Whereas attitude and willingness for COVID-19 vaccination were found to be significant in those with previous history/loss of family members to COVID-19 and also with frequency of travel. Interestingly, the respondent’s marital status had significance with respect to COVID-19 vaccination-related attitude.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated important shortcomings in the attitude and willingness of COVID-19 vaccination among Indian overseas travellers. Furthermore, the study highlights the need for national-level provision of specialized travel-related vaccination programs and the implementation of educational programs promoting COVID-19 vaccination