Analysis of Socio-demographic, Economic and Individual Reasons for COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy in Ecuador: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study

Abstract

The current outbreak of SARS-Cov-2, a virus responsible for COVID-19, has infected millions and caused a soaring death toll worldwide. Vaccination represents a powerful tool in our fight against the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Ecuador is one of the Latin American countries most impacted by COVID-19. Despite free COVID-19 vaccines, Ecuadorians still hesitate to get vaccinated. A multivariate binary logistic regression was used to analyze data from the Ecuadorian National Institute of Statistics and Censuses. This study investigated socio-demographics, economic, and individual reasons associated with a person having “no intention” to receive COVID-19 vaccine across the study period of October 2021 to March 2022. The survey revealed an increase of unvaccinated people having no intention of COVID-19 vaccination from 57.4% (October-December 2021) to 72.9% (January-March 2022). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was dependent on factors like sex, age and ethnicity. Socio-economic characteristics and education level were not found to be statistically significant in lack of vaccine intention, but most vaccination hesitancy was due to distrust in the COVID-19 vaccine. People who believed that the vaccine could be unsafe because of possible side effects represented half of the surveyed participants, a proportion that barely diminished during the progress of the vaccination campaign across October-December 2021 (57.04%) and January-March 2022 (49.59%) periods. People who did not believe that the vaccine was effective enough increased from 11.47 to 18.46%. Misbeliefs about effectiveness and safety of vaccines should be considered in the implementation of public health initiatives of communication, education and intervention to improve vaccination campaigns. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10900-023-01188-7.

Vaccination against COVID-19 and socioeconomic inequalities: A cross-sectional study in Ecuador

“…This shows the social, health, economic, and political vulnerability of indigenous, ethnic or minority populations during the pandemic, and the need to focus government actions on policies aimed at reducing such vulnerability [25] , [26] . At the same time, it has been observed that ethnic groups also present greater hesitancy to be vaccinated [27] , so health education and communication strategies are also necessary to reduce the inequalities observed.…”

“…Previous studies also show the most economically disadvantaged sectors are less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 [32] , [33] . At the same time, those populations with greater economic disadvantages also presented greater hesitancy to vaccination [10] , [27] .…”

Understanding Motivations Behind COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake: Insights from a Cross-Sectional Study in Northern Bangladesh

“…Additionally, socio-demographic factors at the individual level have been found to influence vaccine uptake (Reichmuth et al, 2023). However, existing studies often report conflicting associations and are often limited to specific population groups (Backhaus & Health, 2023;de Figueiredo, Simas, & Larson, 2023;Kabir et al, 2022;Lapo-Talledo, Talledo-Delgado, Portalanza, Ballaz, & Siteneski, 2023), making them less applicable for informing broader policy and program-making efforts. To address these gaps in knowledge, we conducted this study to identify the motivations behind COVID-19 vaccination uptake in Bangladesh and explore their associations with socio-demographic factors.…”