Cargando…

COVID-19 vaccination status in Germany: Factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet)

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that effective vaccines constitute a central element of successful pandemic control. Although everyone in Germany has had the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, some people remain hesitant or refuse to get vaccinated. To address this pheno...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sterl, Sebastian, Stelzmann, Daniela, Luettschwager, Nils, Gerhold, Lars
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9969553/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36860382
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1070272
_version_ 1784897759445254144
author Sterl, Sebastian
Stelzmann, Daniela
Luettschwager, Nils
Gerhold, Lars
author_facet Sterl, Sebastian
Stelzmann, Daniela
Luettschwager, Nils
Gerhold, Lars
author_sort Sterl, Sebastian
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that effective vaccines constitute a central element of successful pandemic control. Although everyone in Germany has had the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, some people remain hesitant or refuse to get vaccinated. To address this phenomenon as well as to examine the unvaccinated population more closely, the present study investigates (RQ1) factors explaining the COVID-19 vaccination status (RQ2) trust in different types of COVID-19 vaccines, and (RQ3) people's specific reasons for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19. METHODS: We base our findings on a representative survey that we conducted in Germany in December 2021 with 1,310 respondents. RESULTS: In response to the first research question, a logistic regression shows that trust in specific institutions (e.g., medical experts and authorities) is positively related to vaccination status, whereas trust in companies and COVID-19-related social and alternative media consumption decreases the likelihood of being vaccinated. Furthermore (RQ2), while vaccinated people trust mRNA-based vaccines (e.g., BioNTech), most unvaccinated people put greater trust in recently developed protein-based vaccines (e.g., Novavax), albeit on a low level. Finally, our study reveals (RQ3) that the most important reason why people choose not to get vaccinated is that they wish to make their own decisions about their bodies. CONCLUSION: Based on our results, we suggest that a successful vaccination campaign should address COVID-19 risk groups and lower income populations, increase trust in different public institutions and newly developed vaccines in advance, establish a multisectoral approach, and debunk fake news and misinformation. Furthermore, since unvaccinated respondents state that the desire to make their own choices about their body is the main reason why they have not gotten vaccinated against COVID-19, an effective vaccination campaign should emphasize the need for general practitioners who have a closer relationship with their patients who, in turn, trust their doctors.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9969553
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-99695532023-02-28 COVID-19 vaccination status in Germany: Factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet) Sterl, Sebastian Stelzmann, Daniela Luettschwager, Nils Gerhold, Lars Front Public Health Public Health INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that effective vaccines constitute a central element of successful pandemic control. Although everyone in Germany has had the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, some people remain hesitant or refuse to get vaccinated. To address this phenomenon as well as to examine the unvaccinated population more closely, the present study investigates (RQ1) factors explaining the COVID-19 vaccination status (RQ2) trust in different types of COVID-19 vaccines, and (RQ3) people's specific reasons for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19. METHODS: We base our findings on a representative survey that we conducted in Germany in December 2021 with 1,310 respondents. RESULTS: In response to the first research question, a logistic regression shows that trust in specific institutions (e.g., medical experts and authorities) is positively related to vaccination status, whereas trust in companies and COVID-19-related social and alternative media consumption decreases the likelihood of being vaccinated. Furthermore (RQ2), while vaccinated people trust mRNA-based vaccines (e.g., BioNTech), most unvaccinated people put greater trust in recently developed protein-based vaccines (e.g., Novavax), albeit on a low level. Finally, our study reveals (RQ3) that the most important reason why people choose not to get vaccinated is that they wish to make their own decisions about their bodies. CONCLUSION: Based on our results, we suggest that a successful vaccination campaign should address COVID-19 risk groups and lower income populations, increase trust in different public institutions and newly developed vaccines in advance, establish a multisectoral approach, and debunk fake news and misinformation. Furthermore, since unvaccinated respondents state that the desire to make their own choices about their body is the main reason why they have not gotten vaccinated against COVID-19, an effective vaccination campaign should emphasize the need for general practitioners who have a closer relationship with their patients who, in turn, trust their doctors. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-02-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9969553/ /pubmed/36860382 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1070272 Text en Copyright © 2023 Sterl, Stelzmann, Luettschwager and Gerhold. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Sterl, Sebastian
Stelzmann, Daniela
Luettschwager, Nils
Gerhold, Lars
COVID-19 vaccination status in Germany: Factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet)
title COVID-19 vaccination status in Germany: Factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet)
title_full COVID-19 vaccination status in Germany: Factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet)
title_fullStr COVID-19 vaccination status in Germany: Factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet)
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 vaccination status in Germany: Factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet)
title_short COVID-19 vaccination status in Germany: Factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet)
title_sort covid-19 vaccination status in germany: factors and reasons for not being vaccinated (yet)
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9969553/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36860382
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1070272
work_keys_str_mv AT sterlsebastian covid19vaccinationstatusingermanyfactorsandreasonsfornotbeingvaccinatedyet
AT stelzmanndaniela covid19vaccinationstatusingermanyfactorsandreasonsfornotbeingvaccinatedyet
AT luettschwagernils covid19vaccinationstatusingermanyfactorsandreasonsfornotbeingvaccinatedyet
AT gerholdlars covid19vaccinationstatusingermanyfactorsandreasonsfornotbeingvaccinatedyet