Sommariva Silvia, Bon Helena Ballester, De Almeida Sofia, Mote Jenna, Brouwers Sijmen, Sani Massimiliano, Fol Natalie
UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, Social and Behaviour Change Section, Nairobi, Kenya.
BMC Proc. 2023 Jul 4;17(Suppl 7):7. doi: 10.1186/s12919-023-00261-2.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, social listening programs across digital channels have become an integral part of health preparedness and response planning, allowing to capture and address questions, information needs, and misinformation shared by users. This study identifies key social listening trends around COVID-19 vaccines in Eastern and Southern Africa and analyses how online conversations about this issue evolved over time.
A taxonomy developed and refined in collaboration with social and behaviour change teams was used to filter online conversations into nine subtopic categories. The taxonomy was applied to online content tracked in 21 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa over the period December 1, 2020-December 31, 2021. Metrics captured included volume of posts or articles and related user engagement. Qualitative analysis of content was conducted to identify key concerns, information voids and misinformation.
Over 300,000 articles and posts about COVID-19 vaccines shared by users or outlets geolocated in the region were analysed. These results generated over 14 million engagements on social media and digital platforms. The analysis shows how conversations about access and availability of vaccines represented the largest share of engagement over the course of the period. Conversations about vaccine effectiveness and safety represented the second and third largest share of engagement, with peaks observed in August and November 2021. Online interest in childhood vaccination increased over time as vaccine eligibility criteria expanded in some countries in the region. Conversations mentioning mandates and certificates peaked in the last quarter of 2021, as governments as private sector entities expanded vaccine requirements.
Findings from this study show the importance of monitoring conversation trends over time and adjust social listening data collection systems to include emerging topics. The study also points to the need to consider concerns, information voids and misinformation around effectiveness and safety of vaccines in the context of overall concern for vaccine availability and access in Eastern and Southern Africa. This is fundamental to inform social and behaviour change strategies that promote vaccine demand effectively, without increasing public frustration over vaccine availability challenges and downplaying concerns around vaccine equity.
在新冠疫情期间，跨数字渠道的社交倾听项目已成为卫生防范和应对规划的一个组成部分，能够捕捉并处理用户分享的问题、信息需求及错误信息。本研究确定了东非和南非围绕新冠疫苗的关键社交倾听趋势，并分析了关于这一问题的在线对话如何随时间演变。
与社会及行为改变团队合作开发并完善的分类法，用于将在线对话过滤为九个子主题类别。该分类法应用于2020年12月1日至2021年12月31日期间在东非和南非21个国家追踪的在线内容。收集的指标包括帖子或文章的数量以及相关的用户参与度。对内容进行定性分析以确定关键关注点、信息空白和错误信息。
分析了该地区地理位置的用户或机构分享的超过30万篇关于新冠疫苗的文章和帖子。这些结果在社交媒体和数字平台上产生了超过1400万次的互动。分析表明，在这一时期，关于疫苗可及性和可得性的对话在互动中占比最大。关于疫苗有效性和安全性的对话分别占互动的第二和第三大比例，在2021年8月和11月出现峰值。随着该地区一些国家疫苗接种资格标准的扩大，对儿童疫苗接种的在线关注度随时间增加。随着政府和私营部门实体扩大疫苗要求，提及强制接种和证书的对话在2021年最后一个季度达到峰值。
本研究结果表明，随着时间推移监测对话趋势并调整社交倾听数据收集系统以纳入新出现的主题非常重要。该研究还指出，在全面关注东非和南非疫苗可得性和可及性的背景下，需要考虑围绕疫苗有效性和安全性的关注点、信息空白和错误信息。这对于制定能有效促进疫苗需求的社会及行为改变策略至关重要，同时又不会增加公众对疫苗可得性挑战的沮丧情绪，也不会淡化对疫苗公平性的担忧。
