Study identifies factors that shape vaccine preferences

A examine involving hypothetical COVID-19 vaccines means that vaccine effectiveness and threat of uncomfortable side effects considerably affect individuals’s preferences for one vaccine over one other, and that variations between vaccines could matter much less to those that are vaccine hesitant. Sabrina Stöckli of the College of Bern and the College of Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues current these findings within the open-access journal PLOS ONE on Could 4, 2022.

COVID-19 vaccines are easing the unfold and severity of the illness in lots of components of the world. Regardless of their security and effectiveness, some people who find themselves eligible to get vaccinated are hesitant to take action. A deeper understanding of the components that affect perceptions of vaccines may assist inform efforts to deal with vaccine hesitancy and preserve headway in opposition to the pandemic.

To analyze vaccine preferences, Stöckli and colleagues introduced greater than 5,000 individuals from France, Germany, and Sweden with pairs of hypothetical vaccines that different in a number of attributes, together with effectiveness, nation of origin, and price. The members rated how possible they might be to decide on to obtain every vaccine and chosen their most well-liked vaccine from every pair. In addition they answered questions on their threat tolerance and their attitudes in the direction of vaccines.

Statistical evaluation of the outcomes confirmed that the attributes with the most important affect on hypothetical vaccine choice have been effectiveness and prevalence of uncomfortable side effects. Members have been additionally much less prone to favor vaccines from China or Russia and extra prone to favor mRNA vaccines and those who value much less.

Nevertheless, members who displayed better vaccine hesitancy confirmed much less distinction between completely different attributes of their vaccine preferences. The researchers say these findings spotlight the necessity to account for individuals’s particular person variations when contemplating vaccine preferences.

As a result of the attributes of those hypothetical vaccines don’t essentially replicate traits of precise COVID-19 vaccines, the real-world implications of this examine could also be restricted.

Nonetheless, whereas extra analysis is required, the researchers conclude that public well being messaging ought to search to make clear the attributes of various vaccines, however that such efforts usually are not prone to improve vaccination charges amongst people who find themselves essentially the most vaccine hesitant. As an alternative, messages for this inhabitants may concentrate on altering attitudes in the direction of vaccines.

The authors add: “In step with different research, we present that folks a lot most well-liked to obtain vaccines that have been proven to supply a strong stage of safety in opposition to COVID-19, with minimal uncomfortable side effects, whereas different variations between vaccines had minimal influence on uptake. Nevertheless, we present that these components mattered way more for individuals who have been already open to vaccinations usually, whereas vaccine hesitant people have been a lot much less prone to settle for a COVID vaccine, no matter how efficient and secure it was.”