Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Aug 7;9(8):876.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines9080876.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Poland-Multifactorial Impact Trajectories

Paweł Sowa  1 , Łukasz Kiszkiel  2 , Piotr Paweł Laskowski  2 , Maciej Alimowski  3 , Łukasz Szczerbiński  4   5 , Marlena Paniczko  1 , Anna Moniuszko-Malinowska  6 , Karol Kamiński  1   7
Affiliations

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Poland-Multifactorial Impact Trajectories

Paweł Sowa et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

Since the declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic confirmed by World Health Organization, work on the development of vaccines has been stimulated. When vaccines are commonly available, a major problem is persistent vaccine hesitancy in many European countries. The main goal of our study was to understand the multidimensional factors inducing this phenomenon in Poland. Our study was carried out at the third wave's peak of the pandemic, with record rates of daily cases and deaths associated with COVID-19. The results indicate that vaccine hesitancy/acceptability should always be considered in an interdisciplinary manner and according to identified factors where most negative attitudes could be altered. Our analyses included the assessment of a representative quota sample of adult Poles (N = 1000). The vaccine hesitancy in the studied group reached 49.2%. We performed stepwise logistic regression modeling to analyze variables set into six trajectories (groups) predicting the willingness to vaccinate. Apart from typical, socio-demographic and economic determinants, we identified the fear of vaccines' side effects, beliefs in conspiracy theories and physical fitness. We were also able to establish the order of importance of factors used in a full model of all impact trajectories.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; vaccine acceptability; vaccine hesitancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study sample selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
ROC curves for all models with Area Under the Curve (AUC).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Random forest variable importance. Blue variable cause an increase in vaccine acceptability, while red variables cause a decrease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Different COVID-19 Vaccines. [(accessed on 20 June 2021)]; Available online: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines.html.
    1. Treatments and Vaccines for COVID-19. [(accessed on 20 June 2021)]; Available online: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/overview/public-health-thr....
    1. Wu J., Liang B., Chen C., Wang H., Fang Y., Shen S., Yang X., Wang B., Chen L., Chen Q., et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection induces sustained humoral immune responses in convalescent patients following symptomatic COVID-19. Nat. Commun. 2021;12:1813. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22034-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zuo J., Dowell A.C., Pearce H., Verma K., Long H.M., Begum J., Aiano F., Amin-Chowdhury Z., Hoschler K., Brooks T., et al. Robust SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity is maintained at 6 months following primary infection. Nat. Immunol. 2021;22:620–626. doi: 10.1038/s41590-021-00902-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. The SAGE Vaccine Hesitancy Working Group What Influences Vaccine Acceptance: A Model of Determinants of Vaccine Hesitancy. [(accessed on 20 June 2021)];2013 Available online: http://www.who.int/immunization/sage/meetings/2013/april/1_Model_analyze....

LinkOut - more resources