TY - JOUR
T1 - Predictive factors of hesitancy to vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 virus in young adults in Spain
T2 - Results from the PSY-COVID study
AU - Mateo-Canedo, Corel
AU - Sanabria-Mazo, Juan Pablo
AU - Comendador, Laura
AU - Rojas, Juan Sebastián
AU - Carmona, Meritxell
AU - Crespo-Puig, Neus
AU - Anyosa, Fiorella
AU - Selva, Clara
AU - Feliu-Soler, Albert
AU - Cardoner, Narcís
AU - Deus, Juan
AU - Luciano, Juan V.
AU - Méndez-Ülrich, Jorge Luis
AU - Sanz, Antoni
N1 - Funding Information:
This study has been funded by the Agency for Management of University Research Grants (AGAUR; 2020PANDE00025) of the Government of Catalonia, the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII; ICI20/00080) and has been co-financed with European Union ERDF funds. JPS-M has a PFIS predoctoral contract from the ISCIII (FI20/00034). AF-S acknowledges the funding from the Serra Húnter program (UAB-LE-8015).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/8/1
Y1 - 2023/8/1
N2 - Widespread population vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a matter of great interest to public health as it is the main pharmacological measure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Hesitancy/reluctance to vaccination has become a main barrier to containing the pandemic. Young adults are the age group with the greatest resistance to vaccination, even in countries with the highest vaccination rates during this pandemic. The objective of this study was to identify the main predictive factors of vaccination intention and profile people with hesitancy/reluctance to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2 virus in young adults living in Spain during the pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on the administration of an online survey (PSY-COVID-2) that evaluated the intention of vaccination together with a wide range of sociodemographic, social, cognitive, behavioral and affective variables in a sample of 2210 young adults. 14% of the sample showed hesitancy/reluctance to vaccination at the beginning of their vaccination campaign. A total of 35 factors were associated (small to medium effect sizes) with the intention to get vaccinated. A reduced set of 4 attitudinal and social variables explained 41% of the variability in vaccination intention: attitude to the vaccination, trust in health staff/scientists, conspiracy beliefs about SARS-CoV-2 and time spent being informed about COVID-19. These variables showed good sensitivity/specificity for classifying people as reluctant/not reluctant to vaccination, properly classifying 86% of people. Psychosocial processes related to attitudes, trust and information are the main predictors of vaccination intention in a highly reluctant group such as the young adult population.
AB - Widespread population vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a matter of great interest to public health as it is the main pharmacological measure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Hesitancy/reluctance to vaccination has become a main barrier to containing the pandemic. Young adults are the age group with the greatest resistance to vaccination, even in countries with the highest vaccination rates during this pandemic. The objective of this study was to identify the main predictive factors of vaccination intention and profile people with hesitancy/reluctance to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2 virus in young adults living in Spain during the pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on the administration of an online survey (PSY-COVID-2) that evaluated the intention of vaccination together with a wide range of sociodemographic, social, cognitive, behavioral and affective variables in a sample of 2210 young adults. 14% of the sample showed hesitancy/reluctance to vaccination at the beginning of their vaccination campaign. A total of 35 factors were associated (small to medium effect sizes) with the intention to get vaccinated. A reduced set of 4 attitudinal and social variables explained 41% of the variability in vaccination intention: attitude to the vaccination, trust in health staff/scientists, conspiracy beliefs about SARS-CoV-2 and time spent being informed about COVID-19. These variables showed good sensitivity/specificity for classifying people as reluctant/not reluctant to vaccination, properly classifying 86% of people. Psychosocial processes related to attitudes, trust and information are the main predictors of vaccination intention in a highly reluctant group such as the young adult population.
KW - Attitudes
KW - Beliefs
KW - COVID-19
KW - Hesitancy
KW - Reluctance
KW - Vaccination
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153042448&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://portalrecerca.uab.cat/en/publications/bf0ef1e5-3821-458a-b6be-655675fa9209
U2 - 10.1016/j.jvacx.2023.100301
DO - 10.1016/j.jvacx.2023.100301
M3 - Article
C2 - 37091731
AN - SCOPUS:85153042448
SN - 2590-1362
VL - 14
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - Vaccine: X
JF - Vaccine: X
M1 - 100301
ER -
