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Multicenter Study
. 2024 Nov 4;118(11):720-728.
doi: 10.1093/trstmh/trae048.

Trust in institutions affects vaccination campaign outcomes

David Leblang  1 , Michael D Smith  2 , Dennis Wesselbaum  3
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Trust in institutions affects vaccination campaign outcomes

David Leblang et al. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. .

Abstract

Background: Trust is an important driver of various outcomes, but little is known about whether trust in institutions affects actual vaccination campaign outcomes rather than only beliefs and intentions.

Methods: We used nationally representative, individual-level data for 114 countries and combined them with data on vaccination policies and rates. We measured the speed of the vaccination campaign for each country using the estimated growth rate of a Gompertz curve. We then performed country-level regressions in the global sample and explored heterogeneity across World Bank development groups.

Results: Globally, higher trust in institutions significantly increased vaccination rates (p<0.01) and vaccination speed (p<0.01). The effect was strong in low- and middle-income countries but statistically not significant in high-income countries.

Conclusions: Our findings have implications for the design of vaccination campaigns for national governments and international organizations. The findings highlight the importance of trust in institutions when designing communication strategies around vaccination campaigns in low- and middle-income countries.

Keywords: COVID-19; Public Health Administration; trust; vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Vaccination campaigns for eight selected countries over time.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Binned scatter plot representing the relation between trust and vaccination campaign outcomes. Left panel shows the trust and vaccination rate relationship. The right panel shows the relationship of trust with vaccination speed. The red line is the linear regression line.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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