A survey instrument for measuring vaccine acceptance

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Survey Methodology
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Accurate measurement of vaccine acceptance is crucial amid misinformation and politicization.
• Existing instruments often focus narrowly on parental vaccine hesitancy.
• A comprehensive tool is needed for assessing general public vaccine acceptance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel instrument for measuring vaccine acceptance in the general public.
• To assess five key dimensions of vaccine acceptance: perceived safety, effectiveness, scheduling acceptance, positive affect, and perceived legitimacy of mandates.
• To complement existing measures of vaccine hesitancy.

Main Methods:

• Integrated substantive knowledge, measurement expertise, and survey design principles.
• Developed a multi-dimensional instrument measuring five facets of vaccine acceptance.
• Conducted reliability and validity analyses using Cronbach's alpha and predictor performance.

Main Results:

• The instrument demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach's alpha) and construct validity.
• Trust in biologists, conspiratorial ideation, and political ideology were significant predictors.
• Scientific reasoning affected liberals and conservatives differently; trust in biologists had a stronger effect on conservatives.

Conclusions:

• The novel instrument reliably and validly measures vaccine acceptance across the general public.
• Findings suggest potential strategies for reducing vaccine-related political polarization.
• The instrument can be utilized by public health researchers, science studies scholars, and health practitioners.