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
. 2022 Apr:26:101755.
doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101755. Epub 2022 Mar 8.

Using Best-Worst Scaling to investigate younger adult Canadians' preferences for COVID-19 vaccination and public health measures: An observational study

Ovidiu Tatar  1   2 , Ben Haward  1 , Patricia Zhu  1   3 , Gabrielle Griffin-Mathieu  1 , Samara Perez  1   4 , Gregory Zimet  5 , Zeev Rosberger  1   6
Affiliations

Using Best-Worst Scaling to investigate younger adult Canadians' preferences for COVID-19 vaccination and public health measures: An observational study

Ovidiu Tatar et al. Prev Med Rep. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Containing the COVID-19 pandemic is dependent on compliance with public health recommendations and mandates which is lower in younger compared to older adults. Furthermore, younger adults have demonstrated lower uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. The aim of this study was to assess preferences for COVID-19 related preventive health measures and vaccination and to explore their association with COVID-19 vaccine acceptability. Canadians aged 18-39 years were invited to participate in a web-based survey in August 2021. We used the Best-Worst-Scaling (BWS) methodology to collect and analyze preference data and multivariable binary logistic regression to estimate associations with vaccine acceptability. Based on 266 complete responses, we found strong preferences for physical distancing and wearing face masks, as compared to general hygiene and respiratory etiquette. High vaccine accessibility independent of the location, receiving successive doses of the same vaccine brand and higher vaccine uptake of people in younger adults' social circle were highly preferred. Higher preferences for mandates requiring proof of vaccination and altruistic motives focused on protecting others by getting vaccinated were associated with vaccine acceptability. As the COVID-19 pandemic waxes and wanes, studies using larger, nationally representative samples are needed to replicate and validate these results to assess preferences for health behaviors corresponding to the latest recommendations. The use of this methodology could provide public health authorities with a unique opportunity to develop targeted, preference-based messaging that aligns with the latest guidelines to effectively encourage compliance and COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Keywords: Best-Worst Scaling; COVID-19; Preferences; Public health measures; Vaccination; Vaccine acceptability; Younger adults.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

References

    1. Afifi T.O., Salmon S., Taillieu T., Stewart-Tufescu A., Fortier J., Driedger S.M. Older adolescents and young adults willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine: Implications for informing public health strategies. Vaccine. 2021;39(26):3473–3479. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.05.026. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aiello A.E., Coulborn R.M., Perez V., Larson E.L. Effect of hand hygiene on infectious disease risk in the community setting: A meta-analysis. Am. J. Public Health. 2008;98(8):1372–1381. doi: 10.2105/ajph.2007.124610. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aizaki H., Fogarty J. An R package and tutorial for case 2 best–worst scaling. J. Choice Modell. 2019;32:100171. doi: 10.1016/j.jocm.2019.100171. - DOI
    1. Aizaki H. Support.BWS2: Basic Functions for Supporting an Implementation of Case 2 Best-Worst Scaling. [Internet]. 2019 [Cited 2021 November 2] [Available from: https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=support.BWS22.].
    1. Atmar R.L., Lyke K.E., Deming M.E., et al. Heterologous SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccinations - Preliminary report. medRxiv. 2021 doi: 10.1101/2021.10.10.21264827. - DOI