Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination Using the Health Belief Model: Does Information Acquisition from Divergent Sources Make a Difference?

Abstract

As a promising approach to stop the escalation of the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccine promotion is becoming a challenging task for authorities worldwide. The purpose of this study was to identify the effective sources for disseminating information on the COVID-19 vaccine to promote individuals’ behavioral intention to take the vaccine. Based on the Health Belief Model (HBM), this study illustrated the mechanism of how COVID-19 information acquisition from different sources was transformed into vaccination intentions via health beliefs. Using an online survey in China, the structural equation model results revealed that perceived benefits and cues to action were positively associated with COVID-19 vaccination intentions, and perceived barriers were negatively related to the intentions. However, perceived susceptibility and perceived severity had no significant relationships with the intentions. Moreover, the findings unveiled differences in the effects of acquiring information via multiple sources among traditional media, new media, and interpersonal interactions. Notably, new media and interpersonal interactions were more salient in promoting vaccination intention via health beliefs, compared with traditional media. The findings from this study will benefit health officials in terms of utilizing different information sources in vaccine programs.

Better Understanding Adult COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy and Refusal: The Influence of Broader Beliefs about Vaccines

“…Only concerns about new variants of the COVID-19 virus were associated with COVID-19 vaccination status when demographic and general vaccine beliefs were included in the model. It should be noted, however, that some published studies, such as that of Yang et al, 2022, found that components of the Health Belief Model, which places emphasis on risk-benefit perceptions, perceived barriers, and cues to action, have found some associations with COVID-19 vaccination (e.g., perceived benefits, information sources used) [ 40 ].…”

Investigating Media Coverage and Public Perceptions of the HPV Vaccine in China – A Content Analysis of Weibo Posts

“…As the establishment of appropriate health beliefs are the prerequisite for cues to action to prompt a health behaviour (Rosenstock, 1966 ), the popularisation of HPV related knowledge should be valued. Previous studies have shown that social media is more influential in promoting an individual’s health beliefs than traditional media (Yang et al, 2022 ). Therefore, the social media can be a crucial channel to reshape the promotion of HPV vaccination, by emphasising more on learning adequate and accurate HPV knowledge.…”

“…In the field of health communication, the theoretical construct of HBM has been widely used to examine media coverage of health-related behaviour and benefit the design of health education campaigns (Kim, 2018 ; Zhang et al, 2017 ). The HBM has been designed specifically for understanding those people who were attempting to act to ameliorate their well-being conditions as a healthy manner to prevent a negative health result (Wong et al, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2022 ). Previous studies have used HBM to examine the public perception and knowledge of health-related behaviour on social media platforms (Briones et al, 2012 ; Massey et al, 2020 ; Yoo et al, 2018 ).…”

Coverage and Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccination Among Pregnant Women: An Experience From a Low-Income Country

“…In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, new information about side effects and growing doubts about its efficacy may discourage people from using it. 10 On the other hand, perceived benefits were found to be the most powerful predictor of all health belief components in a meta-analysis of HBM research. 11 The relevance of public awareness of infection risk, vaccine safety, and the necessity and safety of maternal vaccination is emphasized.…”