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Published on: September 28, 2018
Effect of psychological factors on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy
Hee Jin Kim1, Eun Kim1, Doug Hyun Han1
1Department of Psychiatry, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Seoul 06973, Republic of Korea.
Background:
Vaccine hesitancy can prevent full immunization against coronavirus infectious disease-19 (COVID-19). We hypothesized that multiple factors, including an individual's personality and psychological factors, are associated with vaccine hesitancy.
Methods:
A total of 275 non-vaccinated individuals were recruited for this study. Participants completed a self-report questionnaire including sociodemographic factors, health status, COVID-19 literacy and psychological factors (depressive symptoms, generalized anxiety, somatization, illness anxiety, temperament and character). In a hierarchical logistic regression analysis, a discrete set of hierarchical variables with vaccine acceptance or hesitancy as the dependent variable was added to the demographic factors for Model 1; Model 1 + health status for Model 2; Model 2 + COVID-19 literacy for Model 3 and Model 3 + psychological factors for Model 4.
Results:
Models 3 and 4 could predict vaccine hesitancy. High scores on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 and the Illness Attitude Scale, low confidence, low collective responsibility and low reward dependence were risk factors for vaccine hesitancy.
Conclusions:
The present study demonstrates that psychological factors play critical roles in vaccine hesitancy. In addition to conventional policies that emphasize COVID-19 vaccines' safety and efficacy and the collective benefits of vaccination, a more individualized approach that considers an individual's emotions and personality is necessary.
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