Abstract
COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are necessary to provide durable immunity and stronger protection against the emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. As a major platform for access to information, social media plays an important role in disseminating health information. This study aimed to evaluate hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccine booster shots in China, assess its association with social media use, and provide information to manage social media. We conducted a cross-sectional study across all 31 provinces in mainland China from November 12, 2021, to November 17, 2021. In total, 3,119 of 3,242 participants completed the questionnaire (response rate = 96.2%). COVID-19 vaccine booster shot hesitancy rate in China was 6.5% (95% CI: 5.6-7.3). Unemployment (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.428, 95% CI: 1.590-3.670), low monthly income (aOR 2.854,95% CI: 1.561-5.281), low scores of knowledge (aOR 0.917, 95% CI: 0.869-0.968) and low level of cues to action (aOR 0.773, 95% CI: 0.689-0.869) were associated with vaccine hesitancy. Compared with public social media, lower vaccine hesitancy was associated with high perceived importance of social media (aOR 0.252, 95% CI: 0.146-0.445) and official social media use (aOR 0.671, 95% CI: 0.467-0.954), while higher vaccine hesitancy was associated with traditional media use (aOR 3.718, 95% CI: 1.282-10.273). More efforts are needed to regulate the content of social media and filtering out misinformation. The role of official social media in disseminating health information should be enhanced.
Keywords: COVID-19; Social media; booster shot; third dose; vaccine hesitancy.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, social media, vaccine hesitancy., third dose, booster shot, 【초록키워드】 Vaccine, COVID-19 vaccine, Immunity, social media, knowledge, cross-sectional, media, Vaccine hesitancy, China, cross-sectional study, SARS-CoV-2 variants, Hesitancy, health information, misinformation, information, questionnaire, platform, booster, association, regulate, response rate, adjusted odds ratio, monthly income, 95% CI, effort, participant, unemployment, content, hesitancy rate, evaluate, conducted, 【제목키워드】 media, booster, association, cross-sectional survey,