Could Belief in Fake News Predict Vaccination Behavior in the Elderly?
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 19(22)2022 Nov 12.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2275375
ABSTRACT
Willingness to get a vaccine was important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies suggest that vaccine hesitation during the pandemic could have been related to truth discernment, belief in information, exposure to misinformation, attitudes to vaccines, and conspiracy beliefs. Previous studies were mostly with younger adults, and studies with older adults are lacking. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between the trust or belief in fake online news (print news was not included), truth discernment, attitudes, and willingness to be vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic while controlling for some significant factors/variables that could affect vaccination in a sample of older adults. There were 504 pre-retirees and retirees participating in this study. Participants from Lithuania age ranged from 50 to 90 years old (M = 64.37, SD = 9.10), 58.3 percent were females. Results from several path models predicting the participants willingness to get a vaccine suggested that stronger conspiracy beliefs and skeptical attitudes toward vaccination would be related to lower willingness to get vaccinated. Participants who disbelieved in the headlines were already vaccinated. Therefore, it seems that discernment (the ability to distinguish which information is true and which is not) is not related to the willingness to vaccinate.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ijerph192214901
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