Abstract:Background
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about large increases in mental distress. The uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to significantly reduce health risks, improve economic and social outcomes, with potential benefits to mental health.
Purpose
To examine short-term changes in mental distress following the receipt of the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Methods
Participants included 8,003 adults from the address-based sampled, nationally representative Understanding America Study (UAS), surveyed… Show more
“…The number of days with hopeful feelings decreased the two indicators of prevention compliance and willingness to take vaccines. Feelings of hope may result from evaluation of one's vulnerability to the pandemic [88,89]. Finally, in line with expectations, the number of days with some physical reactions increased the willingness to take COVID-19 vaccines.…”
Vaccine hesitancy remains a major public health concern in the effort towards addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analyzed the effects of indicators of compliance with preventive practices on the willingness to take COVID-19 vaccines in Kenya. The data were from the COVID-19 Rapid Response Phone Surveys conducted between January and June 2021 during the fourth and fifth waves. The data were analyzed with the random-effects endogenous Probit regression model, with estimated parameters tested for robustness and stability. The results showed that willingness to take vaccines increased between the fourth and fifth waves. Compliance with many of the preventive practices also improved, although the utilizations of immune system-promoting practices were very low. The panel Probit regression results showed that compliance indicators were truly endogenous and there was existence of random effects. Immune system-boosting and contact-prevention indicators significantly increased and decreased the willingness to take vaccines, respectively (p < 0.01). The experience of mental health disorders in the form of nervousness and hopelessness also significantly influenced vaccine hesitancy (p < 0.10). Willingness to take vaccines also significantly increased among older people and those with a formal education (p < 0.01). Different forms of association exist between vaccine hesitancy and the prevention compliance indicators. There is a need to properly sensitize the people to the need to complement compliance with COVID-19 contact-prevention indicators with vaccination. Addressing mental health disorders in the form of loneliness, nervousness, depression, hopelessness and anxiety should also become the focus of public health, while efforts to reduce vaccine hesitancy should focus on individuals without formal education, males and youths.
“…The number of days with hopeful feelings decreased the two indicators of prevention compliance and willingness to take vaccines. Feelings of hope may result from evaluation of one's vulnerability to the pandemic [88,89]. Finally, in line with expectations, the number of days with some physical reactions increased the willingness to take COVID-19 vaccines.…”
Vaccine hesitancy remains a major public health concern in the effort towards addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analyzed the effects of indicators of compliance with preventive practices on the willingness to take COVID-19 vaccines in Kenya. The data were from the COVID-19 Rapid Response Phone Surveys conducted between January and June 2021 during the fourth and fifth waves. The data were analyzed with the random-effects endogenous Probit regression model, with estimated parameters tested for robustness and stability. The results showed that willingness to take vaccines increased between the fourth and fifth waves. Compliance with many of the preventive practices also improved, although the utilizations of immune system-promoting practices were very low. The panel Probit regression results showed that compliance indicators were truly endogenous and there was existence of random effects. Immune system-boosting and contact-prevention indicators significantly increased and decreased the willingness to take vaccines, respectively (p < 0.01). The experience of mental health disorders in the form of nervousness and hopelessness also significantly influenced vaccine hesitancy (p < 0.10). Willingness to take vaccines also significantly increased among older people and those with a formal education (p < 0.01). Different forms of association exist between vaccine hesitancy and the prevention compliance indicators. There is a need to properly sensitize the people to the need to complement compliance with COVID-19 contact-prevention indicators with vaccination. Addressing mental health disorders in the form of loneliness, nervousness, depression, hopelessness and anxiety should also become the focus of public health, while efforts to reduce vaccine hesitancy should focus on individuals without formal education, males and youths.
“…The COVID-19 pandemic has had both direct health effects from COVID-19 infection and mortality, but also secondary health impacts on behavior and mental health (Breslau et al 2021;Ettman et al 2020). Along with the direct benefits of reducing COVID-19 infection risk, COVID-19 vaccines can also address secondary risks of the pandemic, including mental health distress (Perez-Arce et al 2021). In this paper, we use data from a national survey collected to estimate how COVID-19 vaccination impacts anxiety and depression symptoms.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Vaccinated individuals face dramatically lower risks of COVID-19 infection and lower severity of COVID-19 illness (Polack et al 2020;Baden et al 2021;Sadoff et al 2021;Thomas et al 2021;Bajema et al 2021). This direct impact of vaccines reduces uncertainty about the futurewhat will happen if I get infectedwhich in turn might reduce a vaccinated person's anxiety or depression associated with fears of infection risk (Perez-Arce et al 2021). Vaccinations can also have spillover effects.…”
NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.