Benevolent personification of the MoH increases compliance with an emergency polio vaccination

Anxiety in the face of the first wave of the spread of COVID-19 in Israel: Psychosocial determinants of a "Panic-to-complacency-continuum"

BACKGROUND AND METHODS

Based on an established ongoing prospective-longitudinal study examining anxiety in response to COVID-19, a representative sample of 1018 Jewish-Israeli adults were recruited online. A baseline assessment was employed two days prior to the first spread of COVID-19, followed by six weekly assessments. Three classes of general anxiety and virus-specific anxiety were identified: (1) "Panic" (a very high and stable anxiety throughout the spread), (2) "Complacency" (a very low and stable anxiety throughout the spread), and (3) "Threat-Sensitivity" (a linear increase, plateauing at the 5th wave). For general-anxiety only, a fourth, "Balanced," class was identified, exhibiting a stable, middle-level of anxiety. We tested theory-based, baseline, social-cognitive predictors of these classes: self-criticism, perceived social support, and perceptions/attitudes towards the Israeli Ministry of Health. We also controlled for trait anxiety. Multinomial regression analyses in the context of General Mixture Modeling were utilized.

RESULTS

Baseline virus-specific anxiety linearly predicted emerging virus-specific anxiety classes. Virus-specific panic has higher trait anxiety than the other two classes. The general anxiety panic class was over-represented by women and exhibited higher baseline general anxiety and self-criticism than all other classes, and higher baseline virus-specific anxiety along with lower perceived support and less positive perceptions of the ministry of health than two of the three other classes.

CONCLUSIONS

Preexisting anxiety shapes subsequent anxious responses to the spread of COVID-19. The general-anxiety panic class may be markedly demoralized, requiring targeted public-health interventions.

Improving older adults' vaccination uptake: Are existing measures of vaccine hesitancy valid and reliable for older people?

We sought to establish whether two recently developed measures, the 5C scale and the Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) were reliable and valid for use with older adults. A total of 372 UK-dwelling participants (65-92 years, M = 70.5 years, SD = 4.6) completed a cross-sectional survey measuring health and socio-demographic characteristics in relation to vaccine uptake for influenza, pneumococcal and shingles. The 5C and VAX scales were administered to test their reliability, validity and dimensionality. Both scales showed good internal reliability and convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity. Their factor structures were also confirmed, supporting their use with older adult populations.

Parents' malevolent personification of mass vaccination solidifies vaccine hesitancy

Parental hesitancy to vaccinate their children derails the success of mass vaccination campaigns. We examined the effect of parents' personification of the vaccinating agency on vaccine hesitancy (i.e. negative or positive mind change) in 555 parents in a mass wild poliovirus vaccination campaign. Parents were assessed before and after the campaign on attitudes toward vaccination and the vaccinating agency ("The Israeli MoH is caring" vs "hysteric"). Positive mind change was predicted by a gender and malevolent personification. A negative mind change was predicted by parental anxiety. We conclude that parental hesitancy is influenced by parents' attachment to the vaccinating agency.