COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and GAD: The role of risk perception and vaccination status

Anxiety and fear of COVID-19 as potential mechanisms to explain vaccine hesitancy among adults

Background

Vaccine hesitancy is a significant global problem resulting from the interaction of multiple factors, including mental health factors. However, the association of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy with mental health has not been well-examined, especially in Arab culture. This study aims to identify the correlation between anxiety/fear of COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy among Saudi adults.

Methods

An online-based survey was administered to 558 participants from all regions of Saudi Arabia using the snowball technique. However, this sample may not be representative of the Saudi adult population. Participants responded to the Questionnaire of Vaccine Hesitancy, the COVID-19-Anxiety Questionnaire (C-19-A), and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). Data were analyzed on vaccine uptake, vaccine hesitancy, coronavirus infection, and demographic variables. The predictive factors of vaccine hesitancy were examined in one model using multiple regression analysis by the Enter method (P= 0.05).

Results

COVID-19 anxiety and fear have significant correlations with vaccine hesitancy (Phi=0.33, P=0.017; Phi=0.29, P=0.013, respectively). Anxiety and fear were higher among unhesitating participants (t =2.469, P=0.014; t=2.025, P=0.043, respectively). Participants who had previously been infected with coronavirus were more likely to be hesitant (X2 = 23.126, P=0.000). Participants who scored high in anxiety were more likely to be vaccinated (F=3.979, P=0.019) and have a secondary school or college education (F=4.903 P=0.002). COVID-19 anxiety, gender, and coronavirus infection significantly predicted vaccine hesitancy.

Conclusion

Anxiety and fear of COVID-19 are among the most important factors correlated with vaccine hesitancy; unhesitant people are more likely to have anxiety and fear. COVID-19 anxiety significantly predicted vaccine hesitancy. We recommend integrating psychological care into vaccination plans to help increase the uptake rate during potential subsequent pandemics. Relevant intervention programs can be designed to help increase vaccine acceptance, deal with vaccine hesitancy, and relieve psychological symptoms during major pandemics. Psychologists can provide awareness messages, counselling seminars, online mentoring, or telemental health outreach.

Health behavior in Russia during the COVID-19 pandemic

In this article, we report results from a nationwide survey on pandemic-related health behavior in Russia. A total of 2,771 respondents aged 18 to 82 were interviewed between January 21 and March 3, 2021. The survey included questions on perceived vulnerability to coronavirus, prevention-related health behavior, readiness for vaccination, and general awareness about COVID-19. Descriptive data showed that 21.2% of respondents reported high vulnerability to the coronavirus, and 25% expressed fear. Moreover, 38.7% of the surveyed individuals reported low trust in vaccination efficacy, and 57.5% were unwilling to take a vaccine, which was much higher than the official data. Based on the evidence obtained, four types of health behavior during the pandemic were constructed. Rational (29.3%) and denying (28.6%) behaviors prevailed in men, while women were found to more likely behave with a vaccine-hesitant demeanor (35.7%). Educational background affected the proportion of respondents with the denying type of health behavior, who were also of younger age. The rational behavioral type was found to be more common among respondents aged above 50 years and prevailed as well among individuals with university degrees. The middle-aged population of Russia was highly compliant with prevention-related health practices; however, vaccine hesitancy was also high among them. Furthermore, health behaviors varied significantly across the Federal Districts of Russia. We are convinced that our results contribute to existing public health practices and may help improve communication campaigns to cause positive health behaviors.

Bibliometric and visual analysis of vaccination hesitancy research from 2013 to 2022

Although vaccination is regarded as one of the most significant achievements of public health, there also exists the phenomenon of vaccination hesitancy which refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite availability of vaccination services. In this study, we conducted a bibliometric analysis to provide a comprehensive overview of vaccination hesitancy research from 2013 to 2022. All related publications were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection Database. Information on annual publications, countries, organizations, journals, authors, keywords, and documents was analyzed adopting the bibliometix R-package, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace software. A total of 4042 publications were enrolled. The annual publications increased slightly before 2020 but had an extremely dramatic increase from 2020 to 2022. The United States contributed the most articles and had the greatest collaboration with other countries and organizations. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was the most active institution. Vaccine was the most cited and influential journal while Vaccines was the most productive journal. It was Dube E who was the most productive authors with the highest h-index. The most frequent keywords were "vaccine hesitancy," "COVID-19," "SARS-CoV2," "immunization," "attitudes," and "willingness." Vaccination hesitancy to some extent hinders the achievement of global public health. The influencing factors vary across time, space, and vaccines. The COVID-19 pandemic and the development of COVID-19 vaccines have made this issue the focus of interest. The complexity and specific contexts of influencing factors of vaccination hesitancy require further study and will potentially be the focus of future research direction.

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and related behavioral and psychological characteristics in individuals with mental disorders in Korea

Objective

This study aimed to investigate COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and related factors in individuals with mental disorders in Korea.

Methods

We surveyed 572 individuals with mental disorders about their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination using a 7-item self-rating questionnaire on vaccine acceptance and hesitancy. We categorized the respondents into groups based on their level of vaccine acceptance using hierarchical clustering. In addition, we evaluated the respondents' vaccination status and trust in sources of information regarding COVID-19 vaccines, and assessed their psychological characteristics using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Gratitude Questionnaire-6, and Big Five Inventory-10.

Results

Clustering revealed three groups according to vaccine acceptance: 'totally accepting' (n= 246, 43.0%), 'somewhat accepting' (n= 184, 32.2%), and 'hesitant' (n= 142, 24.8%) groups. Three quarters of all participants, who belonged to the 'totally accepting' or 'somewhat accepting' groups, were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine despite concerns about its side effects. Individuals in the high vaccine acceptance group were older (F= 12.52, p< 0.001), more likely to receive the influenza vaccine regularly, and more likely to trust formal information sources. Additionally, they had higher levels of gratitude (F= 21.00, p< 0.001) and agreeableness (F= 4.50, p= 0.011), and lower levels of depression (χ²= 11.81, p= 0.003) and neuroticism (F= 3.71, p= 0.025).

Conclusion

The present study demonstrated that individuals with mental disorders were generally willing to receive COVID-19 vaccination. However, they weighed its need and effectiveness against potential side effects before coming to a decision. It is important to understand the behavioral and psychological characteristics associated with vaccine acceptance, to effectively communicate its importance to individuals with mental disorders.

Analysis of Differences in User Groups and Post Sentiment of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitators in Chinese Social-Media Platforms

(1) Background: The COVID-19 epidemic is still global and no specific drug has been developed for COVID-19. Vaccination can both prevent infection and limit the spread of the epidemic. Eliminating hesitation to the COVID-19 vaccine and achieving early herd immunity is a common goal for all countries. However, efforts in this area have not been significant and there is still a long way to go to eliminate vaccine hesitancy. (2) Objective: This study aimed to uncover differences in the characteristics and sentiments of COVID-19 vaccine hesitators on Chinese social-media platforms and to achieve a classification of vaccine-hesitant groups. (3) Methods: COVID-19-vaccine-hesitation posts and user characteristics were collected on the Sina Microblog platform for posting times spanning one year, and posts were identified for hesitation types. Logistic regression was used to conduct user-group analysis. The differences in user characteristics between the various types of COVID-19 vaccine posts were analysed according to four user characteristics: gender, address type, degree of personal-information disclosure, and whether they followed health topics. Sentiment analysis was conducted using sentiment analysis tools to calculate the sentiment scores and sentiment polarity of various COVID-19 vaccine posts, and the K-W test was used to uncover the sentiment differences between various types of COVID-19-vaccine-hesitation posts. (4) Results: There are differences in the types of COVID-19-vaccine-hesitation posts posted by users with different characteristics, and different types of COVID-19-vaccine-hesitation posts differ in terms of sentiment. Differences in user attributes and user behaviors are found across the different COVID-19-vaccine-hesitation types. Ultimately, two COVID-19-vaccine-hesitant user groups were identified: Body-related and Non-bodily-related. Users who posted body-related vaccine-hesitation posts are more often female, disclose more personal information and follow health topics on social-media platforms. Users who posted non-bodily-related posts are more often male, disclose less personal information, and do not follow health topics. The average sentiment score for all COVID-19-vaccine-hesitant-type posts is less than 0.45, with negative-sentiment posts outweighing positive- and neutral-sentiment posts in each type, among which the "Individual rights" type is the most negative. (5) Conclusions: This paper complements the application of user groups in the field of vaccine hesitation, and the results of the analysis of group characteristics and post sentiment can help to provide an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the concerns and needs of COVID-19 vaccine hesitators. This will help public-health agencies to implement more targeted strategies to eliminate vaccine hesitancy and improve their work related to the COVID-19 vaccine, with far-reaching implications for COVID-19-vaccine promotion and vaccination.

Factors Affecting Vaccine Attitudes Influenced by the COVID-19 Pandemic

The development of vaccines has significantly contributed to the success of disease prevention. However, there has been a sharp decline in immunization rates since COVID-19 spread globally. Seemingly overnight, the world shut down and most non-essential medical procedures were postponed. Since the COVID-19 vaccine became available, and the world started going back to normal these vaccine rates have not recovered. In this paper, we review the published literature to explore how convenience factors, perceived risk of vaccination, media or anti-vaccination ideals/movements, and healthcare professionals affect an individual’s compliance to be vaccinated to better understand the factors that contribute to the change in overall vaccination rates.

Effect of social support on anxiety of medical staff one year after COVID-19 outbreak: a moderated mediating model

One year after the outbreak of COVID-19, medical staff are facing high anxiety due to multiple work stresses. Social support has become a protective factor for healthcare workers' anxiety symptoms, but the exact mechanism of action is not yet known. Based on the buffering model, this study aims to explore the impact and mechanisms of action of healthcare workers' perception of social support (PSS) on anxiety symptoms in the context of the epidemic and to further explore how the emotional characteristics of risk perception (ECRP) and resilience play their influence. To this end, this study measured 839 healthcare workers using an online questionnaire from 4 February to 1 March 2021. The results found that PSS among healthcare workers negatively predicted anxiety symptoms. ECRP partially mediated the relationship between PSS and anxiety symptoms, and resilience moderated the first half of the pathway in the model of PSS through ECRP on anxiety symptoms. The emotional characteristics of risk perception of COVID-19 in individuals with high resilience decrease significantly with the increase of PSS, while this change is not significant in individuals with low resilience.