Risk exposures, risk perceptions, negative attitudes toward general vaccination, and COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among college students in South Carolina

Abstract

Growing attention has been paid to vaccination in control of the COVID-19 pandemic and young adults is one of the key populations for vaccination. Advanced understanding of young adults’ willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine and the potential factors influencing their vaccine intention will contribute to the development and implementation of effective strategies to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake among this group. The current study investigated how risk exposures and risk perceptions of COVID-19 (e.g., perceived susceptibility, severity, and fear of COVID-19) as well as negative attitudes toward general vaccination were related to COVID vaccine acceptance among college students based on online survey data from 1062 college students in South Carolina. Hierarchical linear regression was used to examine the association of these factors with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance controlling for key demographics. Results suggested that perceived severity and fear of COVID-19 were positively associated with vaccine acceptance, while higher level of risk exposures (work/study place exposure) and negative attitude toward general vaccination were associated with low vaccine acceptance. Our findings suggested that we need tailored education messages for college students to emphasize the severity of COVID-19, particularly potential long-term negative consequences on health, address the concerns of side effects of general vaccines by dispelling the misconception, and target the most vulnerable subgroups who reported high level of risk exposures while showed low intention to take the vaccine. Efforts are warranted to increase college students’ perceived susceptibility and severity and promote their self-efficacy in health management and encourage them to take protective behaviors including vaccine uptake.

Factors influencing nursing students’ intention to accept COVID-19 vaccination – A pooled analysis of seven countries

“…The attitude toward general vaccination contributes significantly in vaccine hesitancy [35]. In our study, students that have been vaccinated for common influenza in 2019 and 2020 were more likely to have intentions to get vaccinated with a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.…”

Risk perception of COVID-19 and its socioeconomic correlates in the United States: A social media analysis

“…(Detoc et al, 2020) A recent study among 1,062 college students in the Southern United States found that perceived severity was positively associated with vaccine acceptance. (Qiao, Tam, & Li, 2020) A study of 253 young adults in Poland suggested that being worried about health was positively associated with willingness to obey strict hygiene and social distancing restrictions. (Sobkow, Zaleskiewicz, Petrova, Garcia-Retamero, & Traczyk, 2020) Therefore, we see evidence of relationships between perceived severity and behavioral response and vaccination acceptability.…”

Nursing students’ attitudes, knowledge, and willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine: A cross-sectional study

“…Among the 1,488 students interviewed, the scoring rate of vaccination willingness was 5.00±0.85 (83.33%), which was in the middle-to-upper level compared with existing studies (Qiao, Tam & Li, 2020;Sun, Lin & Operario, 2020;Graupensperger, Abdallah & Lee, 2021;Di Giuseppe et al, 2021), indicating that nursing students were more willing to be vaccinated. The analysis of the reasons for willingness/unwillingness to be vaccinated showed that nursing students could have a certain degree of understanding of the necessity, effectiveness, and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine based on their professional foundation.…”

“…A total of 1488 nursing students participated in this study. (Qiao, Tam, & Li, 2020;Lin et al, 2020), we developed a questionnaire entitled "Attitude，Knowledge and vaccination Willingness for the COVID-19 vaccine (AKW)" which covered the following four parts:…”

“…What cannot be ignored is that students still have hesitations about safety and effectiveness. If these hesitations about vaccination are not addressed before vaccination, it may reduce the actual number of vaccinated students and cause psychological pressure as well as unnecessary distress after vaccination (Lucia, Kelekar & Afonso, 2020;Qiao, Tam & Li, 2020). According to the results of the regression analysis, sex, academic background, visits to areas above medium risk in the last six months, whether family members were vaccinated, and whether they had side effects after vaccination were significant influencing factors for the vaccination willingness.…”