P3.097: Knowledge and Willingness of Nurses to Recommend Malaria Vaccination to Parents- ICATCH project's Impact in Nigeria.

Background: Malaria constitutes a significant cause of preventable mortality among children globally and Nigeria is responsible for 26% of the world's malaria cases in 2023, making it one of the top five countries with the highest estimated burden of malaria. The malaria vaccines recommended by WHO have been shown to reduce malaria cases significantly, and deaths from severe malaria, among young children. What is yet unknown is how well nurses, who are responsible for administering vaccinations in the most impacted and endemic countries, like Nigeria, have fared in terms of knowledge, acceptability, and readiness to persuade caregivers of children under five to take the immunizations. This study set out to ascertain the knowledge of malaria vaccines and the willingness of nurses in Nigeria to recommend malaria vaccination to caregivers of under-5 children.

Methods: This project is a direct extension of the previously funded ICATCH project, exploring the implementation feasibility, efficacy, and public health impacts of effective and scalable malaria preventive interventions in early childhood.
This cross-sectional study was carried out among nurses from all six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on participants' demographics, their knowledge of the RTS S/AS01 and R21 Matrix M malaria vaccines, how they obtain malaria vaccine-related information, and the factors that the nurses consider when recommending any malaria vaccine. Bivariate association between each of the demographic characteristics and the key research variables (knowledge of the vaccine and willingness to recommend) was examined using the Chi-Square test and multiple logistic regression.

Results: 420 nurses across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria participated in the study. The study found that nearly two out of every three nurses had poor knowledge and perception of the vaccines (OR = 35.260, C.I. = 18.488-67.250, p.05). The odds of willingness to promote the vaccine among nurses were about 21 times higher among nurses with high perceived efficacy than their counterparts who have low perceptions of the vaccine efficacy. See Tables 1 and 2.

Conclusion: The findings highlight major gaps in Nigerian nurses' knowledge of malaria vaccinations, as well as their willingness to recommend the vaccine to parents. Addressing these gaps by incorporating comprehensive vaccine training sessions into the national nursing continuous professional development programmes will enable nurses to play a critical role in the successful implementation of malaria immunization campaigns.