Cargando…

The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context

The coronavirus pandemic has been recognized as a major threat to public health. Widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for achieving adequate immunization coverage to end the global pandemic. However, to date, there are still hesitant people, especially among the younger population g...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Betta, Sara, Castellini, Greta, Acampora, Marta, Barello, Serena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9031119/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35455307
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10040559
_version_ 1784692310624174080
author Betta, Sara
Castellini, Greta
Acampora, Marta
Barello, Serena
author_facet Betta, Sara
Castellini, Greta
Acampora, Marta
Barello, Serena
author_sort Betta, Sara
collection PubMed
description The coronavirus pandemic has been recognized as a major threat to public health. Widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for achieving adequate immunization coverage to end the global pandemic. However, to date, there are still hesitant people, especially among the younger population groups. For this reason, it is essential to identify the psychological variables that may affect vaccination intention among these “at risk groups” and to select possible successful communication frames in order to increase vaccination rates. An online cross-sectional survey was carried out on 208 Italian citizens younger than 50 years old, to explore message framing effects on their intention to receive the vaccination and to understand the psychological factors influencing it. Results showed that depending on the goal (stimulate vaccination intention, vaccination trust, or vaccine attitude), not all the communication stimuli are equally effective on this target population. Furthermore, the study showed that sociodemographic variables do not help to explain the vaccination intention of the younger population groups, while the psychological variables have been found to have a stronger impact on such attitude. Trust and attitudes towards vaccines, concern about the pandemic and concern about infecting others have been found to be the most effective predictive variables of people vaccination intention. The study results underline the importance of understanding the psychological roots behind vaccine hesitancy to shape sensitization actions and vaccination campaigns targeting this population group.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9031119
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-90311192022-04-23 The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context Betta, Sara Castellini, Greta Acampora, Marta Barello, Serena Vaccines (Basel) Article The coronavirus pandemic has been recognized as a major threat to public health. Widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for achieving adequate immunization coverage to end the global pandemic. However, to date, there are still hesitant people, especially among the younger population groups. For this reason, it is essential to identify the psychological variables that may affect vaccination intention among these “at risk groups” and to select possible successful communication frames in order to increase vaccination rates. An online cross-sectional survey was carried out on 208 Italian citizens younger than 50 years old, to explore message framing effects on their intention to receive the vaccination and to understand the psychological factors influencing it. Results showed that depending on the goal (stimulate vaccination intention, vaccination trust, or vaccine attitude), not all the communication stimuli are equally effective on this target population. Furthermore, the study showed that sociodemographic variables do not help to explain the vaccination intention of the younger population groups, while the psychological variables have been found to have a stronger impact on such attitude. Trust and attitudes towards vaccines, concern about the pandemic and concern about infecting others have been found to be the most effective predictive variables of people vaccination intention. The study results underline the importance of understanding the psychological roots behind vaccine hesitancy to shape sensitization actions and vaccination campaigns targeting this population group. MDPI 2022-04-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9031119/ /pubmed/35455307 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10040559 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Betta, Sara
Castellini, Greta
Acampora, Marta
Barello, Serena
The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context
title The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context
title_full The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context
title_fullStr The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context
title_short The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context
title_sort effect of message framing on covid-19 vaccination intentions among the younger age population groups: results from an experimental study in the italian context
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9031119/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35455307
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10040559
work_keys_str_mv AT bettasara theeffectofmessageframingoncovid19vaccinationintentionsamongtheyoungeragepopulationgroupsresultsfromanexperimentalstudyintheitaliancontext
AT castellinigreta theeffectofmessageframingoncovid19vaccinationintentionsamongtheyoungeragepopulationgroupsresultsfromanexperimentalstudyintheitaliancontext
AT acamporamarta theeffectofmessageframingoncovid19vaccinationintentionsamongtheyoungeragepopulationgroupsresultsfromanexperimentalstudyintheitaliancontext
AT barelloserena theeffectofmessageframingoncovid19vaccinationintentionsamongtheyoungeragepopulationgroupsresultsfromanexperimentalstudyintheitaliancontext
AT bettasara effectofmessageframingoncovid19vaccinationintentionsamongtheyoungeragepopulationgroupsresultsfromanexperimentalstudyintheitaliancontext
AT castellinigreta effectofmessageframingoncovid19vaccinationintentionsamongtheyoungeragepopulationgroupsresultsfromanexperimentalstudyintheitaliancontext
AT acamporamarta effectofmessageframingoncovid19vaccinationintentionsamongtheyoungeragepopulationgroupsresultsfromanexperimentalstudyintheitaliancontext
AT barelloserena effectofmessageframingoncovid19vaccinationintentionsamongtheyoungeragepopulationgroupsresultsfromanexperimentalstudyintheitaliancontext