Purpose: Communicating about COVID-19 vaccine side effects and efficacy is crucial for promoting transparency and informed decision-making, but there is limited evidence on how to do so effectively.
Design: A within-subjects experiment.
Setting: Online survey from January 21 to February 6, 2021.
Subjects: 596 US Veterans and 447 non-Veterans.
Intervention: 5 messages about COVID-19 vaccine side effects and 4 messages about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy.
Measures: COVID-19 vaccine interest (1 = "I definitely do NOT want the vaccine" to 7 = "I definitely WANT the vaccine" with the midpoint 4 = "Unsure"). Confidence about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy (1= "Not at all confident," 2 = "Slightly confident," 3 = "Somewhat confident," 4 = "Moderately confident," 5 = "Extremely confident").
Results: Compared to providing information about side effects alone ( = 5.62 [1.87]), messages with additional information on the benefits of vaccination = 5.77 [1.82], < .001, = .25), reframing the likelihood of side effects = 5.74 [1.84], < .001, = .23), and emphasizing that post-vaccine symptoms indicate the vaccine is working = 5.72 [1.84], < .001, = .17) increased vaccine interest. Compared to a vaccine efficacy message containing verbal uncertainty and an efficacy range ( = 3.97 [1.25]), messages conveying verbal certainty with an efficacy range ( = 4.00 [1.24], = .042, =.08), verbal uncertainty focused on the upper efficacy limit ( = 4.03 [1.26], < .001, = .13), and communicating the point estimate with certainty ( = 4.02 [1.25], < .001, = .11) increased confidence. Overall, Veteran respondents were more interested ( = 5.87 [1.72] vs = 5.45 [2.00], < .001, = .22) and confident ( = 4.13 [1.19] vs = 3.84 [1.32], < .001, = .23) about COVID-19 vaccines than non-Veterans.
Conclusions: These strategies can be implemented in large-scale communications (e.g., webpages, social media, and leaflets/posters) and can help guide healthcare professionals when discussing vaccinations in clinics to promote interest and confidence in COVID-19 vaccines.
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Source |
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9008475 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08901171221082904 | DOI Listing |
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