Are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic? A latent class and mediation analyses in Italy
Despite the recognized benefits of the COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine hesitancy (VH) remains one of the biggest challenges of the mass vaccination campaign. Most studies investigating VH determinants focused on socio-demographics and direct relationships. In this study, we aimed at: 1) identifying su...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics |
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2157622 |
| _version_ | 1827806364095741952 |
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| author | Elisa Maietti Chiara Reno Francesco Sanmarchi Marco Montalti Maria Pia Fantini Davide Gori |
| author_facet | Elisa Maietti Chiara Reno Francesco Sanmarchi Marco Montalti Maria Pia Fantini Davide Gori |
| author_sort | Elisa Maietti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite the recognized benefits of the COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine hesitancy (VH) remains one of the biggest challenges of the mass vaccination campaign. Most studies investigating VH determinants focused on socio-demographics and direct relationships. In this study, we aimed at: 1) identifying subgroups of people differently affected by the pandemic, in terms of psychological status; 2) investigating the role of psychological status and trust in information as possible mediators of the relationship between individual characteristics and VH. To this purpose, a latent class analysis (LCA) followed by a mediation analysis were carried out on data from a survey conducted in January 2021 on 1011 Italian citizens. LCA identified four different subgroups characterized by a differential psychological impact of the pandemic: the extremely affected (21.1%), the highly affected (49.1%), the moderately affected (21.8%) and the slightly affected (8%). We found that VH decreased with the increase of psychological impact (from 59.3% to 23.9%). In the mediation analysis, past vaccination refusal, age 45-54 years and lower-than-average income, were all indirectly related to higher VH through mistrust in COVID-19 information. Differently, the psychological impact counteracted the greater VH in females, the negative effect of social media among youngest (<35 years) and the negative effect of mistrust in the lower-than-average-income subgroup. Knowledge of psychological profile of hesitant individuals, their level of trust and the sources of information they access, together with their sociodemographic characteristics provides a more comprehensive picture of VH determinants that can be used by public health stakeholders to effectively design and adapt communication campaigns. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:40:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d0fc6b62a5b440f78806edbe9949819f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2164-5515 2164-554X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:40:08Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics |
| spelling | doaj.art-d0fc6b62a5b440f78806edbe9949819f2023-09-26T13:25:47ZengTaylor & Francis GroupHuman Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics2164-55152164-554X2022-12-0118710.1080/21645515.2022.21576222157622Are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic? A latent class and mediation analyses in ItalyElisa Maietti0Chiara Reno1Francesco Sanmarchi2Marco Montalti3Maria Pia Fantini4Davide Gori5Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di BolognaAlma Mater Studiorum – Università di BolognaAlma Mater Studiorum – Università di BolognaAlma Mater Studiorum – Università di BolognaAlma Mater Studiorum – Università di BolognaAlma Mater Studiorum – Università di BolognaDespite the recognized benefits of the COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine hesitancy (VH) remains one of the biggest challenges of the mass vaccination campaign. Most studies investigating VH determinants focused on socio-demographics and direct relationships. In this study, we aimed at: 1) identifying subgroups of people differently affected by the pandemic, in terms of psychological status; 2) investigating the role of psychological status and trust in information as possible mediators of the relationship between individual characteristics and VH. To this purpose, a latent class analysis (LCA) followed by a mediation analysis were carried out on data from a survey conducted in January 2021 on 1011 Italian citizens. LCA identified four different subgroups characterized by a differential psychological impact of the pandemic: the extremely affected (21.1%), the highly affected (49.1%), the moderately affected (21.8%) and the slightly affected (8%). We found that VH decreased with the increase of psychological impact (from 59.3% to 23.9%). In the mediation analysis, past vaccination refusal, age 45-54 years and lower-than-average income, were all indirectly related to higher VH through mistrust in COVID-19 information. Differently, the psychological impact counteracted the greater VH in females, the negative effect of social media among youngest (<35 years) and the negative effect of mistrust in the lower-than-average-income subgroup. Knowledge of psychological profile of hesitant individuals, their level of trust and the sources of information they access, together with their sociodemographic characteristics provides a more comprehensive picture of VH determinants that can be used by public health stakeholders to effectively design and adapt communication campaigns.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2157622covid-19vaccine hesitancypsychological impacttrustmediation modellatent class analysis |
| spellingShingle | Elisa Maietti Chiara Reno Francesco Sanmarchi Marco Montalti Maria Pia Fantini Davide Gori Are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic? A latent class and mediation analyses in Italy Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics covid-19 vaccine hesitancy psychological impact trust mediation model latent class analysis |
| title | Are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic? A latent class and mediation analyses in Italy |
| title_full | Are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic? A latent class and mediation analyses in Italy |
| title_fullStr | Are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic? A latent class and mediation analyses in Italy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic? A latent class and mediation analyses in Italy |
| title_short | Are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic? A latent class and mediation analyses in Italy |
| title_sort | are psychological status and trust in information related to vaccine hesitancy during covid 19 pandemic a latent class and mediation analyses in italy |
| topic | covid-19 vaccine hesitancy psychological impact trust mediation model latent class analysis |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2157622 |
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