School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.
PLoS One. 2022 Mar 14;17(3):e0264784. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264784. eCollection 2022.
Vaccines are highly effective in minimizing serious cases of COVID-19 and pivotal to managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite widespread availability, vaccination rates fall short of levels required to bring about widespread immunity, with low rates attributed to vaccine hesitancy. It is therefore important to identify the beliefs and concerns associated with vaccine intentions and uptake. The present study aimed to develop and validate, using the AMEE Guide, the Vaccination Concerns in COVID-19 Scale (VaCCS), a comprehensive measure of beliefs and concerns with respect to COVID-19 vaccines. In the scale development phase, samples of Australian (N = 53) and USA (N = 48) residents completed an initial open-response survey to elicit beliefs and concerns about COVID-19 vaccines. A concurrent rapid literature review was conducted to identify content from existing scales on vaccination beliefs. An initial pool of items was developed informed by the survey responses and rapid review. The readability and face validity of the item pool was assessed by behavioral science experts (N = 5) and non-experts (N = 10). In the scale validation phase, samples of Australian (N = 522) and USA (N = 499) residents completed scaled versions of the final item pool and measures of socio-political, health beliefs and outcomes, and trait measures. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a scale comprising 35 items with 8 subscales, and subsequent confirmatory factor analyses indicated acceptable fit of the scale structure with the data in each sample and factorial invariance across samples. Concurrent and predictive validity tests indicated a theoretically and conceptually predictable pattern of relations between the VaCCS subscales with the socio-political, health beliefs and outcomes, and trait measures, and key subscales predicted intentions to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The VaCCS provides a novel measure to assess beliefs and concerns toward COVID-19 vaccination that researchers and practitioners can use in its entirety or select specific sub-scales to use according to their needs.
疫苗在最大限度减少 COVID-19 重症病例方面非常有效，是管理 COVID-19 大流行的关键。尽管疫苗广泛可用，但接种率仍未达到实现广泛免疫力所需的水平，而低接种率归因于疫苗犹豫。因此，重要的是要确定与疫苗接种意愿和接种有关的信念和关注点。本研究旨在使用 AMEE 指南开发和验证 COVID-19 疫苗关注量表（VaCCS），该量表全面衡量了对 COVID-19 疫苗的信念和关注点。在量表开发阶段，澳大利亚（N=53）和美国（N=48）居民样本完成了一项初步的开放性反应调查，以了解他们对 COVID-19 疫苗的信念和担忧。同时进行了快速文献综述，以确定现有疫苗接种信念量表中的内容。初始项目池是根据调查结果和快速审查开发的。行为科学专家（N=5）和非专家（N=10）评估了项目池的可读性和表面有效性。在量表验证阶段，澳大利亚（N=522）和美国（N=499）居民样本完成了最终项目池的量表版本以及社会政治、健康信念和结果以及特质测量。探索性因素分析得出了一个由 35 个项目组成的量表，包含 8 个亚量表，随后的验证性因素分析表明，在每个样本中，量表结构与数据的拟合良好，并且在样本之间具有因子不变性。同时和预测有效性测试表明，VaCCS 亚量表与社会政治、健康信念和结果以及特质测量之间存在理论上和概念上可预测的关系模式，关键亚量表预测了接种 COVID-19 疫苗的意愿。VaCCS 提供了一种评估对 COVID-19 疫苗接种的信念和担忧的新方法，研究人员和从业者可以根据自己的需要全部或选择特定的子量表来使用。
