National survey of attitudes towards and intentions to vaccinate against COVID-19: implications for communications
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Abstract
To examine public views on COVID-19 vaccination and consider the implications for communications and targeted support.
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting
Online and telephone nationally representative survey in Great Britain, January to February 2021.
Participants
4978 adults. Survey response rate was 84%, among the 5931 panellists invited.
Main outcome measures
Sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, education, financial status), COVID-19 status, vaccine acceptance, trust in COVID-19 vaccination information sources, perceptions of vaccination priority groups and perceptions of importance of second dose.
Results
COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (83%) was associated with increasing age, higher level of education and having been invited for vaccination. Acceptance decreased with unconfirmed past COVID-19, greater financial hardship and non-white British ethnicity; black/black British participants had lowest acceptance. Overall, healthcare and scientific sources of information were most trusted. Compared with white British participants, other ethnicities had lower trust in healthcare and scientific sources. Those with lower educational attainment or financial hardship had lower trust in healthcare and scientific sources. Those with no qualifications had higher trust in media and family/friends. While trust was low overall in community or faith leaders, it was higher among those with Asian/Asian British and black/black British ethnicity compared with white British participants. Views of vaccine prioritisation were mostly consistent with UK official policy but there was support for prioritising additional groups. There was high support for having the second vaccine dose.
Conclusions
Targeted engagement is needed to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in non-white British ethnic groups, in younger adults, and among those with lower education, greater financial hardship and unconfirmed past infection. Healthcare professionals and scientific advisors should play a central role in communications and tailored messaging is needed for hesitant groups. Careful communication around vaccination prioritisation continues to be required.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.29.21259717: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization 2.2 Sample and data collection: The survey was administered to the probability-based NatCen Panel [21], recruited from the 2018, 2019, and 2020 waves of the British Social Attitudes survey, with participants randomly selected from England, Wales and Scotland. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Data were analysed using SPSS v27. SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognize…SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.29.21259717: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization 2.2 Sample and data collection: The survey was administered to the probability-based NatCen Panel [21], recruited from the 2018, 2019, and 2020 waves of the British Social Attitudes survey, with participants randomly selected from England, Wales and Scotland. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Data were analysed using SPSS v27. SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:4.3 Strengths and limitations: Strengths include the large probability-based nationally representative sample, ability to analyse by ethnicity and surveying during vaccine roll-out. Our findings can be generalised to GB’s adult population, however global contexts for COVID-19 and vaccination vary. Although not generalisable to them, the findings are still informative for other countries. The study has limitations. As it is cross-sectional, we cannot infer causality; although we included variables likely to be important in vaccine acceptance, these results are exploratory. Our qualitative studies will deepen understanding of associations. A survey repeated when COVID-19 cases and deaths are low, and without lockdown, might yield different responses. We did not survey individuals who are institutionalised (e.g. prisoners), notably difficult to reach (e.g. homeless), or those not speaking English (therefore, our ethnic minority sample may underrepresent certain views); specific surveys are needed for these groups. We investigated vaccination intention. Actual uptake may be lower, although it is likely that factors associated with intention will influence uptake.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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