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Small cash incentives improve vaccine uptake in rural areas of African countries

Coronavirus General Research

Researchers from the University of Ghana and Oxford University, including researchers from Oxford Population Health’s Health Economics Research Centre, have shown that small cash incentives increased COVID-19 vaccine uptake in rural Ghana. The findings, published in Nature Medicine, could offer a new strategy for enhancing health interventions in Africa.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the challenges associated with implementing vaccination campaigns equitably. There were significantly lower vaccination rates in African countries than the rest of the world (41 COVID-19 vaccine doses per 100 population, compared to 154 for the rest of the world by 4 July 20221), despite adequate supplies in many countries.

Previous studies in Europe and North America have shown that cash incentives increase vaccination rates. So, the research team sought to understand whether cash incentives could have improved COVID-19 vaccination uptake and narrowed the vaccination gap between Africa and the rest of the world.

Read the full story on the Oxford Population Health website. 

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