Knowledge, and Awareness of Covid Vaccines among Senior Citizens in Chennai

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by SARS-CoV-2. It first originated from Wuhan, China. It has caused many effects on each and every part of people all over the world. So many pharmaceutical companies have tried to find vaccines against. India found one of its kinds, named Covaxin and Covishield. The awareness of vaccines is needed to people of all age groups. This study is aimed to create awareness and knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines among senior citizens.

Materials and Methods: Online based, cross-sectional survey was conducted for a period of one week among 136 senior citizens aged between 55-100 years. The survey questions were created using Google forms and sent via whatsapp and email to their family members to translate them. The survey consists of 13 questions in which two were demographic details and the rest were questionnaires. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software. Chi-square test was done to analyze the correlations p value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: 136 senior citizens responded to the survey. The majority of the populations were females (62.5%) within the age group 60-70 years in Chennai. Out of 136, 91.8% were aware of covid pandemic, 81.6% were aware covid vaccine, 74.2% think vaccine is necessary for corona, 69.1% weren’t aware of types of vaccine available for coronavirus in India, 73.5% answered it’s an important tool to stop pandemic and 66.1% were willing to get vaccinated. 60-80 showed better awareness about the benefits of vaccines when compared to other age groups (p value 0.028)

Conclusion: The survey showed the senior citizens of Chennai were more aware (81.6%) about Covid vaccine and Covid-pandemic. Females (62.5%) had better awareness when compared to males (37.5%).