Hierro Luis Á, Patiño David, Atienza Pedro, Garzón Antonio J, Cantarero David
Department of Economics and Economic History, University of Sevilla, Avda. Ramón y Cajal, S/N, 41018, Seville, Spain.
Department of Economics, Universidad de Cantabria, Research Group on Health Economics and Health Services Management-Marqués de Valdecilla Research Institute (IDIVAL), Avda. de los Castros S/N, 39005, Santander, Spain.
Health Econ Rev. 2023 Jan 3;13(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s13561-022-00415-6.
After the emergence of the first vaccines against the COVID-19, public health authorities have promoted mass vaccination in order to achieve herd immunity and reduce the effects of the disease. Vaccination rates have differed between countries, depending on supply (availability of resources) and demand (altruism and resistance to vaccination) factors.
This work considers the hypothesis that individuals' health altruism has been an important factor to explain the different levels of vaccination between countries, using the number of transplants as a proxy for altruism. Taking European Union's countries to remove, as far as possible, supply factors that might affect vaccination, we carry out cross-sectional regressions for the most favorable date of the vaccination process (maximum vaccination speed) and for each month during the vaccination campaign.
Our findings confirm that altruism has affected vaccination rates against the COVID-19. We find a direct relationship between transplants rates (proxy variable) and vaccination rates during periods in which the decision to be vaccinated depended on the individual's choice, without supply restrictions. The results show that other demand factors have worked against vaccination: political polarization and belonging to the group of countries of the former Eastern bloc.
Altruism is a useful tool to define future vaccination strategies, since it favors the individuals' awareness for vaccination.
在首批针对新冠病毒的疫苗出现后，公共卫生当局推动大规模接种疫苗，以实现群体免疫并减轻该疾病的影响。各国的疫苗接种率有所不同，这取决于供应（资源可用性）和需求（利他主义和对疫苗接种的抵触情绪）因素。
本研究提出一个假设，即个人的健康利他主义是解释各国不同疫苗接种水平的一个重要因素，使用移植数量作为利他主义的替代指标。以欧盟国家为例，尽可能排除可能影响疫苗接种的供应因素，我们针对疫苗接种过程中最有利的日期（最大接种速度）以及疫苗接种活动期间的每个月进行横断面回归分析。
我们的研究结果证实，利他主义影响了新冠疫苗接种率。我们发现在接种决策取决于个人选择且无供应限制的时期，移植率（替代变量）与疫苗接种率之间存在直接关系。结果表明，其他需求因素对疫苗接种产生了不利影响：政治两极分化以及属于前东欧集团国家群体。
利他主义是确定未来疫苗接种策略的一个有用工具，因为它有利于提高个人的疫苗接种意识。
