Backhaus Insa, Hoven Hanno, Kawachi Ichiro
Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Institute of Medical Sociology, Centre for Health and Society, Medical Faculty and University Hospital, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Institute for Occupational and Maritime Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Soc Sci Med. 2023 Oct;335:116227. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116227. Epub 2023 Sep 9.
Far-right political parties across the EU have downplayed the risk of COVID-19 and have expressed skepticism toward the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. This may affect the risk perception of people who support far-right parties and may be associated with an elevated risk of vaccine hesitancy. We aimed to explore if voting far-right is associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and if the association varies by individual and country-level factors.
We used cross-sectional data from 28,057 individuals nested in 21 countries who participated in the tenth round of the European Social Survey (ESS). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was assessed by asking respondents whether they will get vaccinated against COVID-19. Voting behavior was measured by asking respondents which party they voted for in the last election. To test the association between far-right voting and COVID-19 hesitancy, we applied a series of multilevel regression models. We additionally ran models including interaction terms to test if the association differs by sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., institutional trust) or contextual factors (e.g., income inequality).
We found that far-right voters were 2.7 times more likely to be COVID-19 vaccine hesitant compared to center voters (PR: 2.69, 95% CI: 1.46-4.94). The association persisted even after controlling for institutional trust and social participation (adjusted PR: 2.15, 95% CI: 1.35-3.42). None of the tested interaction terms were significant suggesting that the association between political ideology and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy does not differ by sociodemographic characteristics or contextual factors.
Voting for far-right parties is associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The association is similar among European countries, regardless of how stringent the public health measures were and magnitude of income inequality in each country. Our findings call for a more in-depth investigation of why, how and under which conditions political ideology affects vaccination behavior.
欧盟各地的极右翼政党淡化了新冠疫情的风险，并对新冠疫苗的安全性表示怀疑。这可能会影响支持极右翼政党的人们的风险认知，并可能与疫苗犹豫风险的升高有关。我们旨在探讨投票给极右翼政党是否与新冠疫苗犹豫有关，以及这种关联是否因个人和国家层面的因素而有所不同。
我们使用了来自21个国家的28057名个体的横断面数据，这些个体参与了第十轮欧洲社会调查（ESS）。通过询问受访者是否会接种新冠疫苗来评估新冠疫苗犹豫情况。通过询问受访者在上次选举中投票给哪个政党来衡量投票行为。为了检验极右翼投票与新冠疫苗犹豫之间的关联，我们应用了一系列多层次回归模型。我们还运行了包含交互项的模型，以检验这种关联是否因社会人口特征（如制度信任）或背景因素（如收入不平等）而有所不同。
我们发现，与中间派选民相比，极右翼选民对新冠疫苗犹豫的可能性高出2.7倍（风险比：2.69，95%置信区间：1.46 - 4.94）。即使在控制了制度信任和社会参与之后，这种关联仍然存在（调整后的风险比：2.15，95%置信区间：1.35 - 3.42）。所测试的交互项均无显著性，这表明政治意识形态与新冠疫苗犹豫之间的关联不因社会人口特征或背景因素而有所不同。
投票给极右翼政党与新冠疫苗犹豫有关。在欧洲国家中，这种关联是相似的，无论每个国家的公共卫生措施有多严格以及收入不平等的程度如何。我们的研究结果呼吁更深入地调查政治意识形态为何、如何以及在何种情况下影响疫苗接种行为。
