University students’ awareness, risk perception and acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots: A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) Approach

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a serious global health threat of the 21st century. To curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the government has taken effective preventive measures, such as implementing the Movement Control Order (MCO) and the National COVID-19 Immunization Program. Due to new variants of COVID-19 (i.e., alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and omicron) that are highly transmissible, booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine are also strongly recommended to ensure better protection from getting infected against these new variants. This study assesses university students' awareness, risk perception, and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots. A survey is conducted among students at Universiti Teknologi MARA Kelantan Kota Bharu Campus. The One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) is used to examine whether there were differences in the awareness, risk perception, and acceptance toward COVID-19 vaccine booster shots according to gender (i.e., Male and Female), program enrolled by students (i.e., Science and Technology and Social Science), state of origin (i.e., Kelantan and Non-Kelantan) and COVID-19 infection history (i.e., Yes and No). The results revealed there were significant differences in the awareness and risk perception toward COVID-19 vaccine booster shots among the state of origin and COVID-19 infection history. These findings provide important guidance to the related authorities to take specific measures in promoting and increasing the COVID-19 booster shots uptake among students in the University.