Influences of social media usage on public attitudes and behavior toward COVID-19 vaccine in the Arab world

BACKGROUND: Vaccination programs are effective only when a significant percentage of people are vaccinated. Social media usage is arguably one of the factors affecting public attitudes toward vaccines. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify if the social media usage factors can predict Arab people’s attitudes and behavior toward the COVID-19 vaccines. METHODS: An online survey was conducted in the Arab countries, and 217 Arab nationals participated in this study. Logistic regression was applied to identify what demographics and social media usage factors predict public attitudes and behavior toward the COVID-19 vaccines. RESULTS: Of the 217 participants, 56.2% (n = 122) were willing to get the vaccines, and 41.5% (n = 90) were hesitant. This study shows that none of the social media usage factors were significant enough to predict the actual vaccine acceptance behavior. However, some social media usage factors could predict public attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccines. For example, compared to infrequent social media users, frequent social media users were 2.85 times more likely to agree that the risk of COVID-19 was being exaggerated (OR = 2.85, 95% CI = 0.86–9.45, p = .046). On the other hand, participants with more trust in vaccine information shared by their contacts were less likely to agree that decision-makers had ensured the safety of vaccines (OR = 0.528, 95% CI = 0.276–1.012, p = .05). CONCLUSION: Information shared on social media may affect public attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, disseminating correct and validated information about the COVID-19 vaccines on social media is important to increase public trust and counter the impact of incorrect misinformation.