Covid-19 vaccines: A model of acceptance behavior in the healthcare sector

Abstract

The emergence of Covid-19 has affected all aspects of human life across the globe. Lockdowns everywhere are having dramatic social and economic consequences. No therapy has yet been approved, and vaccines are a priority potential tool to control the pandemic and its impacts. Multiple vaccines are in the last stage of the development process, but part of the population is not willing to get vaccinated for Covid-19. Several studies have examined the percentage of the population willing to get vaccinated, but few have analyzed the reasons for their decision. In this context, researching the factors influencing individuals’ intention to use a potential Covid-19 vaccine will be important to public health strategies. This paper analyzes these factors with an adapted Cognitive-Affective-Normative (CAN) model. Perceived vaccine efficacy is used as a cognitive variable, fear of the vaccine and fear of Covid-19 are used as affective variables, and social influence is used as the normative variable. The proposed model strongly explains the intention to use the Covid-19 vaccine (R2 = 0.81). The results show that vaccine efficacy will be the most important determinant of Covid-19 vaccine acceptance, followed by social influence. The findings can be very helpful for public health policies aimed at achieving widespread vaccination, a must for vaccine success.

Association between COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and generalized trust, depression, generalized anxiety, and fear of COVID-19

“…The present study found that people with high levels of fear of COVID-19 at waves 1 and 3 were more likely to be willing to receive a vaccine at wave 3. This finding is consistent with most studies that addressed this issue [ 15 , 22 , 26 , 27 , 41 , 46 – 48 , 54 ]. A typical characteristic of fear is that people tend to avoid what they fear.…”

“…More broadly, studies that explored the relationship between the willingness to receive vaccination and the fear of the disease the vaccine prevents concluded that those who fear the disease tend to be more willing to be vaccinated [ 49 – 53 ]. Nevertheless, a recent model study on the COVID-19 vaccine suggested that the impact of the fear of COVID-19 on the willingness to receive vaccination is small, although it exists [ 54 ]. Against this background, it is worthwhile to confirm the robustness of the association between fear of COVID-19 and the willingness to receive vaccination in a country like Japan where the prevalence of COVID-19 cases was lower than in most other countries [ 1 ].…”

The role of religiosity in product and technology acceptance: Evidence from COVID-19 vaccines

“…Even if academic research considers vaccines as innovative products (e.g., Li and Qiu, 2013 ; Mogaji, 2021 ) based on innovative technological platforms (e.g., Mascola and Fauci, 2020 ), only one study has analysed them in terms of behavioural acceptance as a function of their technological nature ( Pelegrín-Borondo et al, 2021 ). Indeed, vaccines are very specific products based on complex technologies.…”

“…The same concerns about safety and/or risk have been found in adopting new products ( Heiman and Muller, 1996 ; Ta and Prybutok, 2018 ). Moreover, research on COVID-19 vaccines suggests that the behavioural intention to get vaccinated is strongly related to the relative perception of the risks connected to vaccines and the infection itself ( Pelegrín-Borondo et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ).…”

Knowledge management and organizational intelligence as tools to combat Covid-19

“…The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of human life and every sector of economic activity in every corner of the globe (Pelegrín-Borondo et al, 2021). Uncertainty on the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is very high (Mennini et al, 2021).…”