Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, Health Services Research, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany.
Faculty of Health Sciences, Nursing and Health Services Research, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Apr 27;22(1):846. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13265-y.
Vaccination against COVID-19 has been available in Germany since December 2020. However, about 30% of the population report not wanting to be vaccinated. In order to increase the willingness of the population to get vaccinated, data on the acceptance of vaccination and its influencing factors are necessary. Little is known about why individuals refuse the COVID-19 vaccination. The aim of this study was to investigate the reasons leading to rejecting vaccination, based on posts from three social media sites.
The German-language versions of Instagram, Twitter and YouTube were searched regarding negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. Data was extracted until a saturation effect could be observed. The data included posts created from January 20, 2020 to May 2, 2021. This time frame roughly covers the period from the first reports of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 up to the general availability of vaccines against COVID-19 in Germany. We used an interpretive thematic approach to analyze the data and to inductively generate codes, subcategories and categories.
Based on 333 posts written by 323 contributing users, we identified six main categories of reasons for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination: Low perceived benefit of vaccination, low perceived risk of contracting COVID-19, health concerns, lack of information, systemic mistrust and spiritual or religious reasons. The analysis reveals a lack of information among users and the spread of misinformation with regard to COVID-19 and vaccination. Users feel inadequately informed about vaccination or do not understand the information available. These information gaps may be related to information not being sufficiently sensitive to the needs of the target group. In addition to limited information for the general population, misinformation on the internet can also be an important reason for refusing vaccination.
The study emphasizes the relevance of providing trustworthy and quality-assured information on COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination to all population groups. In addition, vaccinations should be easily accessible in order to promote the population's willingness to be vaccinated.
自 2020 年 12 月以来，德国已可接种 COVID-19 疫苗。然而，约 30%的人口表示不愿接种疫苗。为了提高民众接种疫苗的意愿，有必要了解民众对疫苗接种的接受程度及其影响因素。对于为什么有些人拒绝接种 COVID-19 疫苗，人们知之甚少。本研究旨在根据三个社交媒体网站上的帖子，调查导致拒绝接种疫苗的原因。
搜索了 Instagram、Twitter 和 YouTube 的德语版本，以了解对 COVID-19 疫苗接种的负面态度。数据的提取一直持续到可以观察到饱和效应为止。数据包括 2020 年 1 月 20 日至 2021 年 5 月 2 日期间发布的帖子。这个时间框架大致涵盖了从 SARS-CoV-2 传播的第一份报告到 COVID-19 疫苗在德国广泛使用的时期。我们使用解释性主题方法来分析数据，并对数据进行归纳，生成代码、子类别和类别。
基于 323 位贡献用户发布的 333 条帖子，我们确定了拒绝 COVID-19 疫苗接种的六个主要原因类别：疫苗接种的低感知收益、低 COVID-19 感染风险感知、健康问题、信息缺乏、系统不信任和精神或宗教原因。分析显示，用户缺乏有关 COVID-19 和疫苗接种的信息，并且存在错误信息的传播。用户对疫苗接种的信息感到了解不足，或者无法理解可用信息。这些信息差距可能与信息没有充分针对目标群体的需求有关。除了为普通民众提供有限的信息外，互联网上的错误信息也可能是拒绝接种疫苗的一个重要原因。
本研究强调了向所有人群提供有关 COVID-19 和 COVID-19 疫苗接种的可靠和有质量保证的信息的重要性。此外，还应方便接种疫苗，以提高民众接种疫苗的意愿。
