Healthcare Professionals’ Willingness-to-Pay and Preferences for Covid-19 Vaccines in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background : Vaccines remains the strategy to prevent Covid-19 disease since there is currently no available cure. Increase in expenditure and limited resources for healthcare funding has shifted the burden of disease towards the patients. Willingness to pay is an objective measure of the value people place on a product or service. This study assessed healthcare professional’s willingness to pay and preference for the available Covid-19 vaccines in Nigeria. Methods : A cross-sectional study conducted on healthcare professionals in a tertiary healthcare institution using a convenient sampling method with the aid of a structured self-administered two sectioned questionnaires. Section A was to obtain the respondent demographics and other information. Section B gave a description of the COVID-19 vaccines, denoted as Vaccine A, B, C and D, and obtained the respondents willingness to pay and preferred Covid-19 vaccine. Data obtained was entered into a Microsoft excel spreadsheet for data cleaning and analysis to obtain the frequency, percentage, Willingness-to-pay (WTP) and standard deviation. The student T-test and ANOVA were used where appropriate to obtain the relationship between the demographic variables and WTP using graphpad inStat 3.0. Results: Out of the 300 questionnaires that were given out, 279 were returned and properly filled giving a response rate of 93%. A majority (171;61.29%) of the respondents were females, 35 (84.2%) were between the age of 25-44yrs while 210 (75.3%) were married. Less than half of the respondents 122 (43.73%) were doctors, 210 (75.27%) have not been sick with Covid-19 disease while 120 (43.01%) had treated a patient with Covid-19 disease. A few 44 (15.77%) had cared for a relative with Covid-19 while 270 (96.77%) had not been hospitalized due to Covid-19 disease. The willingness to pay for Vaccine A is ₦35103.63± 25067.29, Vaccine B is ₦36442.36± 25440.88, Vaccine C is ₦33557.60± 24948.49 and Vaccine D is ₦35302.29± 25816. Majority of the respondent (45.52%) preferred Vaccine A while 16.13% had no preference. Conclusion : The healthcare professionals preferred Vaccine A with a willingness to pay value of ₦35,103.63 ± 25067.29. The willingness-to-pay for the available Covid-19 vaccine was influenced by the respondent’s demographic characteristics, Covid-19 beliefs and experiences.