The current review contributes crucially to the COVID-19-related scientific literature emphasising the requirement of addressing the factors of vaccine acceptance and hesitancy while designing public health interventions/mass vaccination during a pandemic.
Authors
Divya Bhatia, Assistant Professor, Jindal School of Psychology and Counselling, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Deepak Pandiaraj, Assistant Professor, Jindal School of Psychology and Counselling, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Sadananda Reddy, IMPACT, NIHR, University of York, United Kingdom.
Summary
Background: Though the COVID-19 pandemic claimed millions of lives worldwide, advanced vaccine research resulted in the quick evolvement of many potential vaccines. Despite mass vaccine availability, people across the globe were revealed to be uncertain about receiving the vaccination against COVID-19.
Objectives: The current chapter, following a systematic review approach, addresses three crucial questions: (a) worldwide COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy rates, (b) demographic factors determining the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy, and (c) psychological factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy.
Method: The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42022369290). No funding was received for the current systematic review. PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for published articles in peer-reviewed journals in English from December 2020 to October 2022. Records numbering 1,201 were identified, and 54 studies were finally included.
Results: Twenty demographic and 11 psychological factors were identified as significant determining factors of vaccine acceptance and hesitancy across 54 studies in the current systematic review. Most frequent factors are plotted against the number of studies they appeared in.
Discussion: Several other factors, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression, marital status, and political ideologies, were linked with vaccine acceptance and hesitancy and can be the scope of future studies as the current study was limited to discussing the most prominent factors that repeatedly appeared in five or more studies.
Conclusion: By identifying the prominent factors, the current review contributes crucially to the COVID-19-related scientific literature emphasising the requirement of addressing these factors while designing public health interventions/mass vaccination during a pandemic.
Published in: Exploring the Psycho-Social Impact of Covid-19: Global Perspectives on Behaviour, Interventions and Future Directions, Pages 153 – 199, Routledge.
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