TY - JOUR
AU - Freeman, Daniel
AU - Lambe, Sinéad
AU - Yu, Ly-Mee
AU - Freeman, Jason
AU - Chadwick, Andrew
AU - Vaccari, Christian
AU - Waite, Felicity
AU - Rosebrock, Laina
AU - Petit, Ariane
AU - Vanderslott, Samantha
AU - Lewandowsky, Stephan
AU - Larkin, Michael
AU - Innocenti, Stefania
AU - McShane, Helen
AU - Pollard, Andrew J.
AU - Loe, Bao Sheng
PY - 2021
DA - June
TI - Injection fears and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy
JO - Psychological Medicine
EP - 1195
VL - 53
IS - 4
DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721002609
AB - Background: When vaccination depends on injection, it is plausible that the blood-injectioninjury cluster of fears may contribute to hesitancy. Our primary aim was to estimate in the UK adult population the proportion of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy explained by blood-injectioninjury fears. Methods: 15,014 UK adults, quota sampled to match the population for age, gender, ethnicity, income, and region, took part (19th January–5th February 2021) in a nonprobability online survey. The Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Scale assessed intent to be vaccinated. Two scales (Specific Phobia Scale-blood-injection-injury phobia; Medical Fear Survey–injections and blood subscale) assessed blood-injection-injury fears. Four items from these scales were used to create a factor score specifically for injection fears. Results: 3927 (26.2 screened positive for blood-injection-injury phobia. Individuals screening positive (22.0 were more likely to report COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy than individuals screening negative (11.5, odds ratio=2.18, CI: 1.97-2.40, p Conclusions: Across the adult population, blood-injection-injury fears may explain approximately 1019 vaccine hesitancy. Addressing such fears will likely improve the effectiveness of vaccination programmes.
PB - Cambridge University Press
UR - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/208a187c-6891-4b02-a7e5-b911cc36dfe9
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER