COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: influential roles of political party and religiosity. Issue 9 (21st October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Milligan, Megan A.; Hoyt, Danielle L.; Gold, Alexandra K.; Hiserodt, Michele; Otto, Michael W.
• Is Part Of: Psychology, health & medicine. Volume 27:Issue 9(2022)
• Page Start: 1907
• Page End: 1917
• Publication Date: 2022-10-21
• Subjects: COVID-19 pandemic -- vaccines -- religion -- political affiliation -- fear of COVID-19; Medicine and psychology -- Periodicals; Clinical health psychology -- Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1080/13548506.2021.1969026
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-8506

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Given recent declines in US vaccination rates and the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines, identifying sociodemographic influencers of vaccine willingness holds importance for developing effective public health campaigns aimed at enhancing nationwide COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. The present study utilized a hierarchical binary logistic regression model to assess demographic variables (age, gender, race/ethnicity, pre-existing medical conditions), political party membership, religious affiliation, level of religiosity, and fear of COVID-19 as predictors of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance ('Yes', would receive a vaccine or 'No', would not receive a vaccine) in a national sample of US adults (N = 249). Participants were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and completed several online questionnaires pertaining to mental health, health behaviors, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Democratic party membership and decreased level of religiosity predicted acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. This investigation supports political party membership and religiosity as influencers of COVID-19 vaccine willingness and suggests that these variables could represent potential targets for public health interventions aimed at increasing vaccine adoption.