ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The outbreak of monkeypox was declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization on 23 July 2022. There have been 60,000 cases reported worldwide, most of which are in places where monkeypox has never been seen due to the travel of people who have the virus. This research aims to evaluate the general Arabic population in regard to the monkeypox disease, fears, and vaccine adoption after the WHO proclaimed a monkeypox epidemic and to compare these attitudes to those of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed in some Arabic countries (Syria, Egypt, Qatar, Yemen, Jordan, Sudan, Algeria, and Iraq) between 18 August and 7 September 2022. The inclusion criteria were the general public residing in Arabic nations and being older than 18. This questionnaire has 32 questions separated into three sections: sociodemographic variables, prior COVID-19 exposure, and COVID-19 vaccination history. The second portion assesses the knowledge and anxieties about monkeypox, while the third section includes the generalized anxiety disorder (GAD7) scale. Logistic regression analyses were performed to compute the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and their confidence intervals (95%CI) using STATA (version 17.0). RESULTS: A total of 3665 respondents from 17 Arabic countries were involved in this study. Almost two-thirds (n = 2427, 66.2%) of the participants expressed more worry about COVID-19 than monkeypox diseases. Regarding the major cause for concern about monkeypox, 39.5% of participants attributed their anxiety to the fear that they or a member of their family may contract the illness, while 38.4% were concerned about monkeypox becoming another worldwide pandemic. According to the GAD 7 score, 71.7% of the respondents showed very low anxiety toward monkeypox and 43.8% of the participants scored poor levels of knowledge about monkeypox disease. Participants with previous COVID-19 infection showed a 1.206 times greater acceptance to receive the monkeypox vaccine than those with no previous infection. A 3.097 times higher concern for monkeypox than COVID-19 was shown by the participants who perceived monkeypox as dangerous and virulent than those who did not. Participants who have a chronic disease (aOR: 1.32; 95%CI: 1.09-1.60); participants worried about monkeypox (aOR: 1.21; 95%CI: 1.04-1.40), and perceived monkeypox as a dangerous and virulent disease (aOR: 2.25; 95%CI: 1.92-2.65); and excellent knowledge level (aOR: 2.28; 95%CI: 1.79-2.90) have emerged as significant predictors. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reported that three-fourths of the participants were more concerned about COVID-19 than monkeypox disease. In addition, most of the participants have inadequate levels of knowledge regarding monkeypox disease. Hence, immediate action should be taken to address this problem. Consequently, learning about monkeypox and spreading information about its prevention is crucial.
ABSTRACT
As social media such as Twitter has become an important medium for disseminating information, it is essential to understand how the information diffusion on social media influences public adoption of vaccines. Based on the innovation diffusion theory, we construct a user and information quality indicator system for early adopters of COVID-19 vaccination by identifying their creation of user-generated content on social media. Machine learning approaches and text analysis methods are used to perform topic clustering and sentiment analysis on vaccination-related tweets on Twitter. Based on each country's vaccination data in January 2021, the study examines the relationship between the quality of social media early adopters, and the quality of the information they publish with vaccine adoption by using the OSL regression model. The empirical results show that the total number of tests, the number of new COVID-19 cases, and the human development index have a significantly positive influence on vaccine adoption. Neutral emotions and offensive language of early adopters on social media have a significantly negative relationship with vaccine adoption. These interesting findings can help governments and public health officials understand early adopters' perceptions of vaccines and play an important role in targeted policy interventions. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Adoption of health-protective behaviors, including social distancing measures, are a mainstay of mitigating pandemics, so it is important to understand the characteristics associated with those who use them or not. We aimed to delineate local and personal factors associated with self-reported use of health-protective behaviors (HPB) in response to COVID-19, among adults across 4 economically developed countries. We conducted an exploratory, cross-sectional, representative, on-line survey of adults in Canada, Germany, U.K., or the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic (June-July 2020) with two and eight month follow-ups. All countries were experiencing the initial waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. We obtained N = 6,990 participants, who reported 20 specific health-protective behaviors (dependent measure), along with locally mandated health measures, individual characteristics and psychological scales. Using health-protective behaviors (HPB-Quartile score) was significantly associated with 28 of 35 variables studied. In stepwise logistic regression, 21 variables predicted 23.51 % of the variance in HPB-Q scores (p <.000). The strongest predictors were locally mandated protective measures, immature defense mechanisms, COVID-fears, age, moving due to COVID-19, domestic violence, and perceived emotional support from significant others. HPB-Q predicted vaccination hesitancy/willingness (OR = 4.61, CI-95 %: 2.66-8.00) and adoption 8 months later. During the early pandemic, HPB use was most strongly associated with locally mandated measures, followed by psychiatric, demographic, and other personal factors. Considering these empirically derived characteristics may improve public health approaches to optimize HPB and vaccination adoption, mitigating SAR-CoV-2 transmission. Findings may also inform public health responses to future epidemics/pandemics.
ABSTRACT
Vaccination for the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) provides an effective approach for the general improvement of social safety and individual health. To date, few studies have analyzed the adoption of COVID-19 vaccines from an entire impact process perspective. Using the health belief model (HBM) and the valence theory, this research evaluates the impact process of vaccine adoption for COVID-19. The respondents in this study were individuals who have been vaccinated in China. The effective sample included 595 individuals. Four valuable and novel findings are identified through this research. First, neither perceived susceptibility nor perceived severity has a statistically significant impact on the benefits from vaccination, threats from vaccination and self-efficacy. Second, benefits from vaccination produce a significant positive effect on self-efficacy and vaccine adoption. Third, threats from vaccination produce a significant negative effect on self-efficacy and vaccine adoption. Fourth, both self-efficacy and cues to adoption produce a significantly positive impact on vaccine adoption. Our theoretical model, which is the main contribution of this research, indicates that individual vaccine adoption is simply a process that leads from behavioral cognition to behavioral intention, rather than from psychological perception to behavioral cognition and then from behavioral cognition to behavioral intention.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Dental students (DS) and medical students (MS) are exposed to COVID-19. It is important to achieve high COVID-19 vaccination coverage rates in both of these groups. The authors developed a survey to assess COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among MS and DS. METHODS: The authors conducted the study at 3 US dental schools and 1 US medical school using an online survey that assessed previous immunization behavior, attitudes about and perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines, and personal experience with COVID-19. RESULTS: A total of 248 DS and 167 MS completed the survey. Forty-five percent of DS and 23% of MS were hesitant about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Results of bivariate analyses found that MS were 2.7 times more likely than DS to receive the vaccine (odds ratio, 2.74; 95% CI, 1.76 to 4.31; P = .0001). Although DS were more likely than MS (P < .05) to have had COVID-19 and to personally know someone who had COVID-19, MS were more likely to agree with mandates and trust information about the vaccines. In multivariable analyses, after controlling for demographic variables, experience with COVID-19, and personal vaccination behaviors, being a MS or DS was no longer predictive of willingness to get the vaccine. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the need for profession-specific curricula designed to enhance student knowledge about the vaccines and vaccine counseling skills. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The American Dental Association supports dentists administering vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccines. Dentists and DS should be willing to receive the vaccines themselves. Education about the vaccines is needed to improve uptake.