Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Faculty of Law, Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2022 Jul 28;10:878787. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.878787. eCollection 2022.
During the recent pandemic, fear of COVID-19 has been widespread and is considered to deteriorate mental health. We assessed whether vaccination can effectively reduce the fear of COVID-19 and, thus, contribute to improving people's mental health status. We used two-wave panel data from a German online study collected in April 2021 (t1) and August/September 2021 (t2) and estimated differences-in-differences to determine whether those who were vaccinated against COVID-19 experienced a reduction of fear of COVID-19, and whether the reduction was more evident as compared to people who were not vaccinated for various reasons. Fear of COVID-19 generally decreased between t1 and t2 for all respondents. Moreover, reduction of fear for people who were unvaccinated at t1 but received the vaccine between t1 and t2 was strongest as compared to people who did not get vaccinated during that period, even after we controlled for factors associated with fear (e.g., age, gender). Vaccination reduced fear of COVID-19 beyond some seasonal fluctuation and, therefore, we argue that vaccination partially reduces the psychological distress caused by the pandemic. We recommend that scientists, practitioners, and politicians highlight this additional positive effect of vaccination in health communication.
在最近的大流行期间，对 COVID-19 的恐惧普遍存在，并被认为会恶化心理健康。我们评估了接种疫苗是否能有效降低对 COVID-19 的恐惧，从而有助于改善人们的心理健康状况。我们使用了德国一项在线研究在 2021 年 4 月（t1）和 8/9 月（t2）收集的两波面板数据，并估计了差分差异，以确定接种 COVID-19 疫苗的人是否经历了对 COVID-19 的恐惧的降低，以及与因各种原因未接种疫苗的人相比，这种降低是否更为明显。对于所有受访者来说，恐惧 COVID-19 的情绪通常在 t1 和 t2 之间下降。此外，与在此期间未接种疫苗的人相比，t1 时未接种疫苗但在 t1 和 t2 之间接种疫苗的人的恐惧减少幅度最大，即使我们控制了与恐惧相关的因素（例如年龄、性别）也是如此。疫苗接种降低了 COVID-19 的恐惧，超出了一些季节性波动，因此，我们认为疫苗接种部分减轻了大流行带来的心理困扰。我们建议科学家、从业者和政治家在健康传播中强调疫苗接种的这一额外积极影响。
