Factors Influencing the Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccines in a Country with a High Vaccination Rate

Abstract

Control of the COVID-19 pandemic largely depends on the effectiveness of the vaccination process. An understanding of the factors that underlie the willingness to accept vaccination contributes pivotal information to controlling the pandemic. We analyzed the association between the willingness to accept the available COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine determinants amidst the Chilean vaccination process. Individual-level survey data was collected from 744 nationally representative respondents and multivariate regression models were used to estimate the association between outcome and explanatory variables. We found that trust in COVID-19 vaccines, scientists, and medical professionals significantly increased the willingness to: accept the vaccines and booster doses, as well as annual vaccinations and the vaccination of children. Our results are critical to understanding the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in the context of a country with one of the world's highest vaccination rates. We provide useful information for decision-making and policy design, in addition to establishing guidelines regarding how to effectively explain vaccination programs to citizens.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine acceptance; risk perception; vaccine confidence.

Figure 1

Respondents’ perceptions of vaccine side effects, getting sick from COVID-19, effectiveness of COVID-19 control practices, and trust in vaccines, stakeholders, social media, and the press (n = 744). The bars indicate the breakdown of the percentage of respondents providing an answer to each question asked. The full questionnaire is shown in the Supplementary Information. ISP (Chilean Public Health Institute), WHO (World Health Organization). (A) Trust in vaccine. (B) Trust in stakeholders. (C) Trust in social media. (D) Perception of the effectiveness of prevention practices against COVID-19. (E) Concern about vaccines’ side effects and probability of COVID-19 infection. (F) Trust in the press. For all figures, different lowercase letters indicate a significant difference of trust or perception (Dunn’s test with Bonferroni adjustment, p < 0.01).