Tong Kwok Kit, He Mu, Wu Anise M S, Dang Le, Chen Juliet Honglei
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Macao, China.
Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Institute of Collaborative Innovation, University of Macau, Macao, China.
Vaccines (Basel). 2021 Oct 12;9(10):1170. doi: 10.3390/vaccines9101170.
COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to provide protection against severe disease and death. However, substantial individual differences in vaccination intentions have hindered achieving optimal vaccination rates across the population. To look for efficient strategies to promote vaccination, this study tested whether the protection motivation theory (PMT), a cognitive model based upon threat and coping appraisals, would account for the differences in vaccination intentions under three scenarios (i.e., in the context of getting vaccinated in general, and in the context of high- and low- efficacy for reducing COVID-19 transmission risk). A phone survey was conducted in early 2021 and obtained a probability community sample ( = 472; 49.2% men) in Macao, China. We found that 54.0% of respondents indicated their relatively strong intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination for high-efficacy vaccines, compared to 29.5% for low-efficacy vaccines and 31.0% for vaccines in general. After adjusting for demographics, self-efficacy (i.e., the perceived capability of receiving COVID-19 vaccines) and maladaptive response reward (i.e., the perceived benefits of not receiving COVID-19 vaccines) were consistently associated with COVID-19 vaccination intentions under all three scenarios. The perceived severity of COVID-19 infection and response cost (i.e., the perceived costs of receiving COVID-19 vaccines) were significantly associated with vaccination intention for high-efficacy vaccines, while the response efficacy of lowering the COVID-19 impact with COVID-19 vaccination was positively associated with vaccination intention for general and low-efficacy vaccines. Given that the relative strength of PMT constructs depends on perceived vaccine efficacy, we recommend taking PMT constructs and vaccine efficacy into account for encouraging vaccination.
新冠疫苗已被证明能预防重症和死亡。然而，疫苗接种意愿存在显著个体差异，这阻碍了在整个人口中实现最佳接种率。为了寻找促进疫苗接种的有效策略，本研究测试了基于威胁和应对评估的认知模型——保护动机理论（PMT），是否能解释三种情况下（即在一般接种疫苗的背景下，以及在降低新冠病毒传播风险的高、低效力背景下）疫苗接种意愿的差异。2021年初进行了一项电话调查，在中国澳门获得了一个概率社区样本（n = 472；49.2%为男性）。我们发现，54.0%的受访者表示他们对高效疫苗有较强的接种新冠疫苗意愿，相比之下，低效疫苗的这一比例为29.5%，一般疫苗的比例为31.0%。在调整人口统计学因素后，自我效能感（即接种新冠疫苗的感知能力）和适应不良反应奖励（即不接种新冠疫苗的感知益处）在所有三种情况下都与新冠疫苗接种意愿始终相关。新冠病毒感染的感知严重性和反应成本（即接种新冠疫苗的感知成本）与高效疫苗的接种意愿显著相关，而接种新冠疫苗降低新冠病毒影响的反应效能与一般和低效疫苗的接种意愿呈正相关。鉴于PMT结构的相对强度取决于感知到的疫苗效力，我们建议在鼓励接种疫苗时考虑PMT结构和疫苗效力。
