Casale Marisa, Somefun Oluwaseyi, Ronnie Genevieve Haupt, Sumankuuro Joshua, Akintola Olagoke, Sherr Lorraine, Cluver Lucie
School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Western Cape, South Africa.
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, Barnett House, Oxford, United Kingdom.
PLOS Glob Public Health. 2025 Mar 18;5(3):e0003795. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0003795. eCollection 2025.
Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among young people can be seen as an acute - but not isolated - phenomenon within an alarming longer-term trend of broader vaccine distrust in Africa. Yet there are still considerable knowledge gaps in relation to the scope and drivers of low vaccine acceptability among young people. Moreover, better frameworks and tools are needed to conceptualise and better understand acceptability in this population group. We applied the recently published Accelerate Framework for Young People's Acceptability to guide qualitative research with young people living in South Africa and Nigeria. We aimed to investigate their overall acceptability of the Covid-19 vaccine, and explore factors shaping this acceptability and willingness to be vaccinated. In collaboration with seven community-based organisation partners, we conducted 12 in-person focus groups and 36 remote interviews with 163 individuals aged 15-24. Through a collaborative, iterative process we conducted thematic analysis, incorporating aspects of both deductive and inductive approaches. Our findings show how vaccine acceptability is shaped by a multiplicity of inter-related factors. They also provide a more in-depth perspective of some of these phenomena, their relative importance and their connections in this group of young people. Limited vaccine understanding, conflicting information and distrust, the influence of others, and fear of side effects were key inter-related drivers of low vaccine acceptability. Factors promoting Covid-19 vaccine acceptability were instead: positive perceptions of vaccine safety and efficacy, protection from disease, protection of others, and a desire to return to normal activity. We discuss implications of these findings for policy and practice, both to increase acceptability of Covid-19 vaccination among young people, and more broadly promote vaccination as a critical component of public health programs. Lastly, we reflect on this first application of theAccelerate Framework, and implications for its use in future studies.
年轻人对新冠疫苗的犹豫态度，可被视为非洲更广泛的疫苗不信任这一令人担忧的长期趋势中的一种尖锐但并非孤立的现象。然而，在年轻人对疫苗接受度较低的范围和驱动因素方面，仍存在相当大的知识空白。此外，需要更好的框架和工具来概念化并更好地理解这一人群的接受度。我们应用最近发布的《年轻人接受度加速框架》来指导对生活在南非和尼日利亚的年轻人进行定性研究。我们旨在调查他们对新冠疫苗的总体接受度，并探讨影响这种接受度和接种意愿的因素。我们与七个社区组织合作伙伴合作，对163名15至24岁的个体进行了12次面对面焦点小组讨论和36次远程访谈。通过一个协作、迭代的过程，我们进行了主题分析，融合了演绎法和归纳法的各个方面。我们的研究结果表明了疫苗接受度是如何由多种相互关联的因素塑造的。它们还提供了对其中一些现象、它们的相对重要性以及它们在这群年轻人中的联系的更深入视角。对疫苗的了解有限、信息冲突与不信任、他人的影响以及对副作用的恐惧，是疫苗接受度较低的关键相互关联驱动因素。相反，促进新冠疫苗接受度的因素包括：对疫苗安全性和有效性的积极看法、预防疾病、保护他人以及恢复正常活动的愿望。我们讨论了这些发现对政策和实践的影响，既包括提高年轻人对新冠疫苗接种的接受度，也包括更广泛地将疫苗接种作为公共卫生项目的关键组成部分加以推广。最后，我们反思了《加速框架》的首次应用及其对未来研究使用的影响。
