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. 2022 Mar 21;22(1):556.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12969-5.

Willingness and uptake of the COVID-19 testing and vaccination in urban China during the low-risk period: a cross-sectional study

Suhang Song  1 , Shujie Zang  2 , Liubing Gong  3 , Cuilin Xu  4 , Leesa Lin  5   6 , Mark R Francis  7 , Zhiyuan Hou  8   9
Affiliations

Willingness and uptake of the COVID-19 testing and vaccination in urban China during the low-risk period: a cross-sectional study

Suhang Song et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Regular testing and vaccination are effective measures to mitigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence on the willingness and uptake of the COVID-19 testing is scarce, and the willingness and uptake of vaccination may change as the pandemic evolves. This study aims to examine willingness and uptake of COVID-19 testing and vaccination during a low-risk period of the COVID-19 pandemic in urban China.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among 2244 adults in urban China. Descriptive analyses were performed to compare the respondents' willingness and uptake of COVID-19 testing and vaccination. Multivariate logistic regressions were fitted to investigate factors associated with the willingness and uptake of the two measures.

Results: In early 2021, about half (52.45%) of the respondents had received or scheduled a COVID-19 test at least once, and a majority (95.63%) of the respondents were willing to receive testing. About two-thirds (63.28%) of the respondents had received/scheduled or were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Willingness and uptake of COVID-19 testing were not associated with socio-demographic characteristics, except for occupation. Being of older age, migrants, having higher educational attainment and secure employment were associated with a higher uptake of COVID-19 vaccination among the surveyed respondents, while willingness to vaccinate was consistent across socio-demographic characteristics among those who had not been vaccinated.

Conclusions: By early 2021, Chinese adults expressed almost universal willingness of COVID-19 testing and over half of adults have been tested, while the willingness and uptake of COVID-19 vaccination were relatively low at the low-risk period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maintaining willingness of COVID-19 vaccination is critical and necessary, especially when the pandemic evolved into a low-risk period.

Keywords: COVID-19 testing; COVID-19 vaccination; Uptake; Willingness.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Willingness and uptake of COVID-19 testing and vaccination. A Uptake of COVID-19 testing and vaccination. B Willingness of COVID-19 testing and vaccination. Note: Willingness of COVID-19 vaccination included 3 missing values
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Reasons for the uptake of COVID-19 testing. Note: Three participants who have received the COVID-19 test didn't report their reasons of receiving the test, so the sample size for the testing reason question was limited to 1174
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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