Associations Between Social Media Engagement and Vaccine Hesitancy.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Al-Uqdah L
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8947854 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Understanding how vaccine hesitancy relates to online behavior is crucial for addressing current and future disease outbreaks. We combined survey data measuring attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine with Twitter data in two studies (N 1 = 464 Twitter users, N 2 = 1,600 Twitter users) with preregistered hypotheses to examine how real-world social media behavior is associated with vaccine hesitancy in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). In Study 1, we found that following the accounts of US Republican politicians or hyper-partisan/low-quality news sites were associated with lower confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine-even when controlling for key demographics such as self-reported political ideology and education. US right-wing influencers (e.g. Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson) had followers with the lowest confidence in the vaccine. Network analysis revealed that participants who were low and high in vaccine confidence separated into two distinct communities (or "echo chambers"), and centrality in the more right-wing community was associated with vaccine hesitancy in the US, but not in the UK. In Study 2, we found that one's likelihood of not getting the vaccine was associated with retweeting and favoriting low-quality news websites on Twitter. Altogether, we show that vaccine hesitancy is associated with following, sharing, and interacting with low-quality information online, as well as centrality within a conservative-leaning online community in the US. These results illustrate the potential challenges of encouraging vaccine uptake in a polarized social media environment.
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Project description:Food advertisement exposure is associated with increased caloric intake, but little is known about food/beverage placements in the digital media environment. We aimed to examine the correlation between the number of people who follow food and beverage brand social media accounts (i.e., user engagement) and state-level obesity rates; quantify social media followers' use of "healthy" vs. "unhealthy" hashtags; and analyze the relationship between user engagement and hashtag usage. We identified the 26 fast-food and beverage brands with the highest advertising expenditures and used Demographics Pro to determine the characteristics of social media users amongst the 26 brands. A series of regression analyses were conducted that related the mean percentage of brand followers and state-level obesity rates. We then identified 733 hashtags on Instagram and 703 hashtags on Twitter, coding them as "healthy", "unhealthy", "neutral", or "unrelated to health". Intercoder reliability was established using ReCal2, which indicated a 90% agreement between coders. Finally, we conducted ANCOVA to examine the relationship between the mean percentage of brand followers and their hashtag usage. There was a significant, positive correlation between the state-level obesity rate and the mean percentage of followers of sugary drink or fast-food brands on Instagram and Twitter, but such a correlation between obesity and low-calorie drink brand followers was only found on Twitter. Our findings illustrate the relationship between the social media food environment and obesity rates in the United States. Given the high rates of engagement with food brands on social media, policies should limit digital advertisements featuring fast-food, sugary drink, and low-calorie drink brands.
| S-EPMC8657578 | biostudies-literature
Project description:It is widely acknowledged that vaccine hesitancy is a multifaceted problem that cannot be addressed by a single strategy. Behavior change theories and social media tools may together help to guide the design of interventions aimed at improving vaccination uptake. This systematic review aims to identify the breadth and effectiveness of such theories and tools. The systematic review search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, ACM, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases for studies between January 2011 and January 2021 that applied social media tools to increase vaccine confidence or improve vaccination uptake. The literature search yielded a total of 3,065 publications. Twenty articles met the eligibility criteria, 12 of which were theory-based interventions. The result shows that the Health Belief Model was the most frequently deployed theory, and the most common social media tool was educational posts, followed by dialogue-based groups, interactive websites, and personal reminders. Theory-based interventions were generally more measurable and comparable and had more evidence to trigger the positive behavior change. Fifteen studies reported the effectiveness in knowledge gain, intention increase, or behavior change. Educational messages were proved to be effective in increasing knowledge but less helpful in triggering behavior change. Dialogue-based social media intervention performed well in improving people's intention to vaccinate. Interventions informed by behavior change theory and delivered via social media platforms offer an important opportunity for addressing vaccine hesitancy. This review highlights the need to use a multitheory framework and tailoring social media interventions to the specific circumstances and needs of the target audience in future interventions. The results and insights gained from this review will be of assistance to future studies.
| S-EPMC8848992 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundMonitoring public confidence and hesitancy is crucial for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Social media listening (infoveillance) can not only monitor public attitudes on COVID-19 vaccines but also assess the dissemination of and public engagement with these opinions.ObjectiveThis study aims to assess global hesitancy, confidence, and public engagement toward COVID-19 vaccination.MethodsWe collected posts mentioning the COVID-19 vaccine between June and July 2020 on Twitter from New York (United States), London (United Kingdom), Mumbai (India), and Sao Paulo (Brazil), and Sina Weibo posts from Beijing (China). In total, we manually coded 12,886 posts from the five global metropolises with high COVID-19 burdens, and after assessment, 7032 posts were included in the analysis. We manually double-coded these posts using a coding framework developed according to the World Health Organization's Confidence, Complacency, and Convenience model of vaccine hesitancy, and conducted engagement analysis to investigate public communication about COVID-19 vaccines on social media.ResultsAmong social media users, 36.4% (571/1568) in New York, 51.3% (738/1440) in London, 67.3% (144/214) in Sao Paulo, 69.8% (726/1040) in Mumbai, and 76.8% (2128/2770) in Beijing indicated that they intended to accept a COVID-19 vaccination. With a high perceived risk of getting COVID-19, more tweeters in New York and London expressed a lack of confidence in vaccine safety, distrust in governments and experts, and widespread misinformation or rumors. Tweeters from Mumbai, Sao Paulo, and Beijing worried more about vaccine production and supply, whereas tweeters from New York and London had more concerns about vaccine distribution and inequity. Negative tweets expressing lack of vaccine confidence and misinformation or rumors had more followers and attracted more public engagement online.ConclusionsCOVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is prevalent worldwide, and negative tweets attract higher engagement on social media. It is urgent to develop an effective vaccine campaign that boosts public confidence and addresses hesitancy for COVID-19 vaccine rollouts.
| S-EPMC8202656 | biostudies-literature
Project description:As COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out across the world, there are growing concerns about the roles that trust, belief in conspiracy theories, and spread of misinformation through social media play in impacting vaccine hesitancy. We use a nationally representative survey of 1476 adults in the UK between 12 and 18 December 2020, along with 5 focus groups conducted during the same period. Trust is a core predictor, with distrust in vaccines in general and mistrust in government raising vaccine hesitancy. Trust in health institutions and experts and perceived personal threat are vital, with focus groups revealing that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is driven by a misunderstanding of herd immunity as providing protection, fear of rapid vaccine development and side effects, and beliefs that the virus is man-made and used for population control. In particular, those who obtain information from relatively unregulated social media sources-such as YouTube-that have recommendations tailored by watch history, and who hold general conspiratorial beliefs, are less willing to be vaccinated. Since an increasing number of individuals use social media for gathering health information, interventions require action from governments, health officials, and social media companies. More attention needs to be devoted to helping people understand their own risks, unpacking complex concepts, and filling knowledge voids.
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Project description:IntroductionGiven increasing efforts to regulate e-cigarettes, it is important to understand factors associated with support for tobacco regulatory policies. We investigate such factors found in social media and hypothesize that greater online engagement with tobacco content would be associated with less support for e-cigarette regulatory policies.MethodsWe constructed social networks of Twitter users who tweet about tobacco and categorized them using a combination of social network and Twitter metrics. Twitter users were identified as representing leaders, followers or general users in online discussions of tobacco products, and invited to complete an online survey. Participants responded to questions about their engagement with tobacco-related content online, degree of support for e-cigarette regulations, exposure to tobacco marketing, e-cigarette use and other demographic information. We examined links between their reported engagement with tobacco-related content and support for e-cigarette regulatory policies using structural equation modelling.ResultsThe analytic sample consisted of 470 participants. The conceptualized structural equation model had a good fit (χ2 (32) = 24.85, p = 0.09, CFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.03). Findings support our hypothesis: engagement with online tobacco content was negatively associated with support for e-cigarette policies, while controlling for e-cigarette use, tobacco marketing exposure, social media use frequency and demographic factors.ConclusionsFindings suggest that our hypothesis was supported. Twitter users engaging with tobacco-related content and harboring negative attitudes toward e-cigarette regulatory policies could be an important audience segment to reach with tailored e-cigarette policy education messages.
| S-EPMC6542731 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The recent Covid 19 pandemic revealed the global challenge posed by infectious diseases. Vaccines are a crucial tool in preventing pandemics, as evidenced by their success in controlling past outbreaks. The rise of information and communication technology has introduced social media platforms as potential game-changers in both preventing and managing future pandemics. However, these same platforms can also be a double-edged sword, hindering the uptake of essential vaccination services. This study investigated the association between social media use and vaccine hesitancy among medical students. The study was designed as an institution based cross sectional study of 423 medical students in Kenya Medical Training College and University of Kabianga in Kericho County. Stratified sampling was used to decide on the two institutions and systematic random sampling was used to select the study participants. Research administered questionnaires were used to collect data on the socio-demographic characteristics, use of social media platforms, social media campaigns, and uptake of Covid 19 vaccines. The collected data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25. Chi square was used to establish the association between the independent variables and uptake of Covid 19 vaccines. The variables that were significantly associated with hesitancy to Covid 19 vaccines were further analyzed using binary logistic regression. The confidence interval (CI) was set at 95% and statistical significance was considered at p < 0.05. The study found significant associations between vaccine hesitancy and several factors, including academic level, preferred social media platform, the influence of social media on attitudes towards vaccines, concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy, and confidence in vaccines. The findings present social media as a potential platform for promotion of vaccines utilization during pandemics when used well.
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Project description:Both traditional and social media information sources have disseminated information on the COVID-19 pandemic. The content shared may influence public opinion on different mitigation strategies, including vaccination. Misinformation can alter risk perception and increase vaccine hesitancy. This study aimed to explore the impact of using social media as the primary information source about the COVID-19 vaccine on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among people living in Canada. Secondary objectives identified other predictors of vaccine hesitancy and distinguished the effects of using traditional and social media sources. We used quota sampling of adults in Canada [N = 985] to conduct an online survey on the Pollfish survey platform between 21st and 28th May 2021. We then used bivariate chi-squared tests and multivariable logistic regression modeling to explore the associations between using social media as one's primary source of information about the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine hesitancy. We further analyzed the association between specific types of channels of information and vaccine hesitancy. After controlling for covariates such as age, sex, race, and ethnicity, individuals reporting social media as their primary source of COVID-19 vaccine information versus those who had not used social media as their primary source of COVID-19 vaccine information had 50% higher odds of vaccine hesitancy. Among different channels of information, we found that information from television was associated with a 40% lower odds ratio for vaccine hesitancy. Since social media platforms play an essential role in influencing hesitancy in taking the COVID-19 vaccination, it is necessary to improve the quality of social media information sources and raise people's trust in information. Meanwhile, traditional media channels, such as television, are still crucial for promoting vaccination programs.
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Project description:IntroductionVaccines have contributed to substantial reductions of morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases, mainly in children. However, vaccine hesitancy was listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019 as one of the top ten threats to world health.AimTo employ machine-learning strategies to assess how on-line content regarding vaccination affects vaccine hesitancy.MethodsWe collected social media posts and responses from vaccination discussion groups and forums on leading social platforms, including Facebook and Tapuz (A user content website that contains blogs and forums). We investigated 65,603 records of children aged 0-6 years who are insured in Maccabi's Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). We applied three machine learning algorithms (Logistic regression, Random forest and Neural networks) to predict vaccination among Israeli children, based on demographic and social media traffic.ResultsHigher hesitancy was associated with more social media traffic, for most of the vaccinations. The addition of the social media traffic features improved the performances of most of the models. However, for Rota virus, Hepatitis A and hepatitis B, the performances of all algorithms (with and without the social media features) were close to random (accuracy up to 0.63 and F1 up to 0.65). We found a negative association between on-line discussions and vaccination.ConclusionsThere is an association between social media traffic and vaccine hesitancy. Policy makers are encouraged to perceive social media as a main channel of communication during health crises. Health officials and experts are encouraged to take part in social media discussions, and be equipped to readily provide the information, support and advice that the public is looking for, in order to optimize vaccination actions and to improve public health.
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