Siu Judy Yuen-Man
Department of Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
International Research Centre for the Advancement of Health Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Front Public Health. 2025 Mar 11;13:1495951. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1495951. eCollection 2025.
This study investigated the reasons for COVID-19 vaccination refusal among some Hong Kong residents who were anti-vaccinationists, despite the implementation of a vaccine incentive policy called the Vaccine Pass. The health belief model and the theory of planned behavior have been widely employed to analyze the determinants of COVID-19 vaccination. However, these two theories focus on the micro individual factors, which do not provide a sufficiently comprehensive analysis.
A qualitative descriptive approach with a critical medical anthropology framework.
This study adopts a critical medical anthropology framework that provides a micro and macro analysis at four social levels. A qualitative approach with individual, semi-structured, in-depth interviews was conducted from September 2022 to March 2023 with 30 individuals aged 20-59 years who did not receive COVID-19 vaccination in Hong Kong. The participants were recruited through purposive sampling and snowball sampling. A thematic analysis of data was implemented.
The reasons for COVID-19 vaccination refusal involved intertwining relationships among factors in the four social levels of the critical medical anthropology framework. The participants' doubts about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines at the individual level were interacting with: (1) their ethnocultural beliefs and the perceived profit-oriented nature of vaccine production and distribution at the macro-social level, (2) their interpretation of the inconsistent advice of medical doctors at the micro-social level, and (3) their distrust in the government's vaccination policies at the intermediate-social level.
The participants' refusal of COVID-19 vaccines was correlated with perceived profit motives related to the vaccine, perceived conflict of interest of health-care providers, and the distrust of government.
本研究调查了香港一些反疫苗接种者拒绝接种新冠疫苗的原因，尽管实施了一项名为“疫苗通行证”的疫苗激励政策。健康信念模型和计划行为理论已被广泛用于分析新冠疫苗接种的决定因素。然而，这两种理论侧重于微观个体因素，分析不够全面。
采用具有批判性医学人类学框架的定性描述方法。
本研究采用批判性医学人类学框架，在四个社会层面进行微观和宏观分析。2022年9月至2023年3月，对香港30名年龄在20-59岁未接种新冠疫苗的个体进行了定性研究，采用个体、半结构化、深度访谈。参与者通过目的抽样和滚雪球抽样招募。对数据进行了主题分析。
拒绝接种新冠疫苗的原因涉及批判性医学人类学框架四个社会层面因素之间的相互关系。参与者在个体层面上对新冠疫苗安全性的怀疑与以下因素相互作用：（1）他们在宏观社会层面的民族文化信仰以及对疫苗生产和分发的逐利性质的认知；（2）他们在微观社会层面上对医生不一致建议的解读；（3）他们在中观社会层面上对政府疫苗接种政策的不信任。
参与者拒绝接种新冠疫苗与对疫苗的逐利动机认知、对医护人员利益冲突的认知以及对政府的不信任有关。
