The impact of vaccine hesitation on the intentions to get COVID-19 vaccines: The use of the health belief model and the theory of planned behavior model

Assessing the instantaneous social dilemma on social distancing attitudes and vaccine behavior in disease control

In the face of infectious disease outbreaks, the collective behavior of a society can has a profound impact on the course of the epidemic. This study investigates the instantaneous social dilemma presented by individuals' attitudes toward vaccine behavior and its influence on social distancing as a critical component in disease control strategies. The research employs a multifaceted approach, combining modeling techniques and simulation to comprehensively assess the dynamics between social distancing attitudes and vaccine uptake during disease outbreaks. With respect to modeling, we introduce a new vaccination game (VG) where, unlike conventional VG models, a 2-player and 2-strategy payoff structure is aptly embedded in the individual behavior dynamics. Individuals' willingness to adhere to social distancing measures, such as mask-wearing and physical distancing, is strongly associated with their inclination to receive vaccines. The study reveals that a positive attitude towards social distancing tends to align with a higher likelihood of vaccine acceptance, ultimately contributing to more effective disease control. As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, swift and coordinated public health measures are essential to curbing the spread of infectious diseases. This study underscores the urgency of addressing the instantaneous social dilemma posed by individuals' attitudes. By understanding the intricate relationship between these factors, policymakers, and healthcare professionals can develop tailored strategies to promote both social distancing compliance and vaccine acceptance, thereby enhancing our ability to control and mitigate the impact of disease outbreaks in the future.

The COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Healthcare Workers: An Exploration of Hesitancy Reasons and Suggestions to Improve Vaccination Rates

Objective

Vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers (HCWs) represents a significant challenge and threat in pandemics. This study aims to identify the predictive factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among HCWs and offer strategies to increase the COVID-19 vaccination rate in healthcare settings.

Materials and Methods

This study constitutes the qualitative portion (second part) of a mixed-methods doctoral thesis employing an explanatory design. It was conducted in two distinct pandemic hospitals and involved 23 vaccine-hesitant HCWs. To conduct the interviews, the researchers developed a semi-structured interview form based on the Health Belief Model (HBM).

Results

Upon analyzing the in-depth interviews, we identified six primary reasons for vaccine hesitancy and four different sub-reasons that reinforce vaccine hesitancy. We also collected four key suggestions from vaccine-hesitant HCWs that could potentially persuade them to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Conclusion

This study's findings, which encompass the identification of reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, clarification of underlying factors contributing to hesitancy towards the COVID-19 vaccines, and gathering suggestions from HCWs on how to persuade them to get vaccinated, hold significant value for guiding vaccination campaigns during potential future pandemics.

Effect of safety and security equipment on patient and visitor violence towards nurses in multiple public hospitals of China during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective, difference-in-difference analysis

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to analyse whether safety and security equipment decreased patient and visitor violence (PVV) towards nurses in the COVID-19 period and quantify to what extent safety and security equipment affects PVV.

DESIGN

Controlled before and after study and difference-in-difference (DID) analysis.

SETTING

A large hospital medical group, consisting of three public tertiary teaching hospitals, namely, Xinjiekou Branch, Huilongguan Branch and Xinlongze Branch of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, located in the west and north parts of Beijing, China.

PARTICIPANTS

A panel of nine departments recruited using two-step sampling method, administered online surveys in 2021 and 2022. A total of 632 eligible nurses participated in the survey in 2021 and 725 eligible nurses in 2022.

MEASURES

We assessed impacts of the safety and security equipment on the PVV. The policy had been enacted in June 2020, and the corresponding measures were established after mid-December 2020, and therefore, we use a DID design to evaluate changes in nurses' PVV incidence. Departments are classified as either department installed or non installed, and nurses are classified based on their department.

RESULTS

Within the treatment group, the incidence of physical PVV significantly decreased from 13.8% in 2020 to 2.0% in 2021. In the control group, the incidence of physical PVV increased from 0.6% in 2020 to 2.7% in 2021. The application of the safety and security equipment decreased the incidence of physical PVV by 13.93% (95% CI: -23.52% to -4.34%). In contrast, no difference was observed between the treatment and control groups for the incidence of psychological PVV (6.23%, 95% CI: -11.56% to 24.02%) and overall PVV (0.88, 95% CI: -20.90% to 22.66%).

CONCLUSION

The safety and security equipment reduced the incidence of physical PVV towards nurses. For hospital managers in public hospitals, longer-term strategies roadmap for PVV prevention measures are needed to create a more supportive work environment in employees.

Young adults' intention to encourage COVID-19 vaccination among their grandparents: A nationwide cross-sectional survey of college students in China

Background

During a vaccination plateau phase, traditional vaccination promotion strategies such as the mobilization of government and community appear to have limited impact on expanding the coverage. New strategies to promote vaccination are needed especially in older adults. Our study aimed to assess college students' intention to encourage coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination among their grandparents and its correlates.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in China from May to June 2022. We collected information on socio-demographics of college students and their grandparents, constructs of health belief model (HBM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB) for college students, and college students' intention to encourage COVID-19 vaccination among their grandparents. Multilevel logistic regression models were performed to assess correlates of intention.

Results

We enrolled 2681 college students who reported information for 6302 grandparents. 2272 students (84.7 %) intended to encourage COVID-19 vaccination for 4744 (75.3 %) grandparents. Intention was associated with having received a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine (AOR 3.28, 95 % CI 1.68-6.42), having ever lived with their grandparents (2.07, 1.46-2.93), and having grandparents who regularly went outdoors (2.85, 1.70-4.76). HBM and TPB models showed that college students who had higher levels of perceived susceptibility (1.79, 1.12-2.87), perceived severity (1.52, 1.12-2.06) of COVID-19 among their grandparents, and higher levels of subjective norms (2.88, 1.61-5.15) were more likely to have the intention.

Conclusion

College students' intention to encourage COVID-19 vaccination among their grandparents was high. It may be potentially viable to engage college students in promoting COVID-19 and other routine vaccination among older adults.

Parents' intention to vaccinate their preschool children against COVID-19: Combining the health belief model and the theory of planned behavior

The vaccination rate of COVID-19 in preschool children is low, and parents' intention to vaccinate their children is also low due to multiple factors. This study aimed to establish an integrated model based on the Health Belief Model (HBM)and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), to explore the factors influencing parents' intention to vaccinate their preschool children with the first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. A total of 1264 parents of preschool children from 10 kindergartens participated in this study. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the intention separately. For the integrated model with the first dose of vaccine of COVID-19, introducing the HBM variable in model 1 explained 33.98% of the variance (F = 398.71, p < .001), then upon adding the TPB variable in model 2, the explanation of variance increased to 41.93% (F = 491.94, p < .001) and parents' intention were associated with their perceived barriers, cues to action, and subjective norms. For the integrated model with the second dose of vaccine of COVID-19, introducing the HBM variable in Model 1 explained 23.76% of the variance (F = 68.82, p < .001), then upon adding the TPB variable in model 2, the explanation of variance increased to 26.67% (F = 77.24, p < .001), and parents' intention was associated with cues to action and subjective norms. The combination of the two theories improves the explanatory power of parents' intention to vaccinate their preschool children against COVID-19, and provides a basis for the development of effective interventions for vaccination of COVID-19 for preschool children.

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.

The 100 Most-Cited Articles in COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Based on Web of Science: A Bibliometric Analysis

Purpose

To perform a bibliometric analysis of the 100 most-cited articles (T100 articles) on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy to characterize current trends.

Methods

The data of the bibliometric analysis were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database on January 29, 2023, and the results were sorted in descending order by citations. Two researchers independently extracted the characteristics of the top 100 cited articles, including title, author, citations, publication year, institution, country, author keywords, Journal Cited Rank, and impact factor. Excel and VOSviewer were used to analyze the data.

Results

The T100 articles ranged from 79 to 1125 citations, with a mean of 208.75. The T100 articles were contributed by 29 countries worldwide, of which the USA ranked first with 28 articles and 5417 citations. The T100 articles were published in 61 journals; the top three citations were VACCINES, NATURE MEDICINE, and EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, and the number of citations was 2690, 1712, and 1644, respectively. Professor Sallam, M(n=4) from Jordan, is the author who participated in the most published articles. Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (n=8) had the most T100 articles.

Conclusion

It is the first bibliometric analysis of the T100 articles in the field of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We carefully analyzed and described the characteristics of these T100 articles, which provide ideas for further strengthening COVID-19 vaccination and fighting against the epidemic in the future.

Vaccine Uptake to Prevent Meningitis and Encephalitis in Shanghai, China

Multiple vaccines may prevent meningitis and encephalitis (M/E). In China, the meningococcal vaccine and Japanese encephalitis vaccine (JEV) have been included in the expanded program of immunization (EPI). The pneumococcal vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine, rotavirus vaccine, and enterovirus 71 (EV-71) vaccine are non-EPI vaccines and are self-paid. We aim to investigate the uptake of these M/E vaccines in children and the related knowledge and health beliefs among family caregivers. A total of 1011 family caregivers with children aged 1-6 years in Shanghai, China were included in the study. The uptake of the pneumococcal vaccine, Hib-containing vaccine, rotavirus vaccine, and EV-71 vaccine remained at 44.0-48.1% in children, compared with the higher uptake of the meningococcal vaccine (88.8%) and JEV (87.1%). Moreover, family caregivers had limited knowledge on the M/E pathogens and possible vaccines. Their health beliefs were moderate to high. Then, a health belief model (HBM) and a structural equation model were established. The uptake of four non-EPI vaccines was significantly influenced by family income (β = 0.159), knowledge (β = 0.354), self-efficacy (β = 0.584), and perceived susceptibility (β = 0.212) within an HBM. Therefore, it warrants further improving the uptake rate for these non-EPI vaccines to prevent potential M/E in children. A specific health promotion may empower the caregivers' decision-making on childhood vaccination.