Awareness, attitude and practice of COVID-19 and its vaccination in J&K, India

COVID-19 Pandemic has severely affected the health care delivery system, economic and social progress since its inception. Although COVID-19 vaccines have given, a new hope but Vaccine hesitancy has been recognized as a serious public health problem that needs extensive research among different population groups. This study was aimed to assess awareness, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 vaccination and its association with Sociodemographicvariables among social media users in Jammu and Kashmir, India.The Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Anantnag conducted this cross-sectional study in June 2021, among social media users, 18 and above years of age, using online questionnaire through Google Forms. The questionnaire comprised of four segments, sociodemographic details, awareness, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 vaccination, ten questions from each segment.In this study, although the calculated sample size was 423, a total of 425 respondents were included. The mean scores of awareness, regarding COVID-19 disease and its vaccination, was 3.68 ± 0.44, with overall awareness was 73.6%, positive attitude 3.53 ± 0.41, with an overall positive attitude of 70.6%, and good practice towards adopting COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and vaccination was 3.43 + 0.71 with an overall good practice of 68.6% respectively. Participants with higher awareness regarding COVID-19 disease and its vaccination were 9.1 times (95% C.I = 5.16-14.32) more likely to have a positive attitude towards using COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and its vaccination and 7.8 times (95% C.I = 4.62-13.83) adopting good practice than with the low level of awareness.In Jammu and Kashmir, social media users are having good awareness toward COVID-19 disease and its vaccination. Awareness generation seems to be a good tool for bringing behavioural changes and this platform should be used to disseminate information regarding COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and its vaccination.