TY - JOUR
T1 - Correlates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Austria
T2 - Trust and the government
AU - Schernhammer, Eva
AU - Weitzer, Jakob
AU - Laubichler, Manfred D.
AU - Birmann, Brenda M.
AU - Bertau, Martin
AU - Zenk, Lukas
AU - Caniglia, Guido
AU - Jäger, Carlo C.
AU - Steiner, Gerald
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health.
PY - 2022/3/1
Y1 - 2022/3/1
N2 - Background: With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic surging and new mutations evolving, trust in vaccines is essential. Methods: We explored correlates of vaccine hesitancy, considering political believes and psychosocial concepts, conducting a non-probability quota-sampled online survey with 1007 Austrians. Results: We identified several important correlates of vaccine hesitancy, ranging from demographics to complex factors such as voting behavior or trust in the government. Among those with hesitancy towards a COVID-19 vaccine, having voted for opposition parties (opp) or not voted (novote) were (95% Confidence Intervall (CI)opp, 1.44-2.95) to 2.25-Times (95%CInovote, 1.53-3.30) that of having voted for governing parties. Only 46.2% trusted the Austrian government to provide safe vaccines, and 80.7% requested independent scientific evaluations regarding vaccine safety to increase willingness to vaccine. Conclusions: Contrary to expected, psychosocial dimensions were only weakly correlated with vaccine hesitancy. However, the strong correlation between distrust in the vaccine and distrust in authorities suggests a common cause of disengagement from public discourse.
AB - Background: With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic surging and new mutations evolving, trust in vaccines is essential. Methods: We explored correlates of vaccine hesitancy, considering political believes and psychosocial concepts, conducting a non-probability quota-sampled online survey with 1007 Austrians. Results: We identified several important correlates of vaccine hesitancy, ranging from demographics to complex factors such as voting behavior or trust in the government. Among those with hesitancy towards a COVID-19 vaccine, having voted for opposition parties (opp) or not voted (novote) were (95% Confidence Intervall (CI)opp, 1.44-2.95) to 2.25-Times (95%CInovote, 1.53-3.30) that of having voted for governing parties. Only 46.2% trusted the Austrian government to provide safe vaccines, and 80.7% requested independent scientific evaluations regarding vaccine safety to increase willingness to vaccine. Conclusions: Contrary to expected, psychosocial dimensions were only weakly correlated with vaccine hesitancy. However, the strong correlation between distrust in the vaccine and distrust in authorities suggests a common cause of disengagement from public discourse.
KW - COVID-19
KW - behaviour
KW - communicable diseases
KW - vaccine hesitancy
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U2 - 10.1093/pubmed/fdab122
DO - 10.1093/pubmed/fdab122
M3 - Article
C2 - 33948665
AN - SCOPUS:85126072566
SN - 1741-3842
VL - 44
SP - E106-E116
JO - Journal of Public Health
JF - Journal of Public Health
IS - 1
ER -