The association between social media use and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccine booster shots in China: A web-based cross-sectional survey

• Main Authors: Ruitong Wang (Author), Chenyuan Qin (Author), Min Du (Author), Qiao Liu (Author), Liyuan Tao (Author), Jue Liu (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group, 2022-11-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2164-5515; 2164-554X; 10.1080/21645515.2022.2065167
• Keywords: social media; covid-19; vaccine hesitancy; booster shot; third dose; Immunologic diseases. Allergy; RC581-607; Therapeutics. Pharmacology; RM1-950
• Source: Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, Vol 18, Iss 5 (2022)

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.