Analysis of the Impact of Media Trust on the Public’s Motivation to Receive Future Vaccinations for COVID-19 Based on Protection Motivation Theory

Abstract

Object: Media trust is one of the essential factors affecting health behavior. Based on the protection motivation theory (PMT), this study explores the impact of different public media trust (traditional media, social media, interpersonal communication) on future COVID-19 vaccine motivation. Methods: The online survey was conducted from 14 April to 30 April 2021, and 2098 adults were recruited to participate in the online survey through the Wenjuanxing online survey platform. The survey included the PMT constructs (threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and motivation for future COVID-19 vaccination), trust in different media, vaccine hesitation reasons, and implementation of other non-pharmaceutical interventions. Structural equation model (SEM) was used for latent variable analysis, and Spearman linear correlation coefficient matrix was used to explore the relationships between variables. Results: In terms of trust in different media, participants who had a higher education level (p = 0.038), who was married (p = 0.002), and who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 during the survey (p = 0.002) show greater trust in traditional media. Participants who were married (p = 0.001), who had a relatively high income (p = 0.020), and who had not been vaccinated (p = 0.044) show greater trust in social media. Older participants (p < 0.001) and married (p < 0.001) showed greater trust in interpersonal communication. In the structural equation, trust in traditional media had a direct positive impact on perceived severity (β = 0.172, p < 0.001) and a direct negative impact on internal rewards (β = −0.061, p < 0.05). Trust in both traditional and social media separately had a direct positive impact on self-efficacy (β = 0.327, p < 0.001; β = 0.138, p < 0.001) and response efficiency (β = 0.250, p < 0.001; β = 0.097, p < 0.05) and a direct negative impact on response costs (β = −0.329, p < 0.001; β = −0.114, p < 0.001). Trust in interpersonal communication had a direct positive impact on external rewards (β = 0.186, p < 0.001) and response costs (β = 0.091, p < 0.001). Overall, traditional media trust had an indirect positive influence on vaccine motivation (β = 0.311), social media trust had an indirect positive influence on vaccine motivation (β = 0.110), and interpersonal communication had an indirect negative influence on vaccine motivation (β = −0.022). Conclusion: This study supports the use of PMT as an intermediate variable to explore the effect of media trust on vaccination intention. High trust in traditional media has helped reduce vaccine hesitation, increased the public’s future COVID-19 vaccination motivation, and maintained other non-pharmacological interventions. Social media also had a certain promotion effect on vaccine motivation. In this context, attention should also be paid to interpersonal communication, and the science publicity work was suggested for an individual’s family members and friends in the future to improve the quality and ability of interpersonal communication.

COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake and Hesitancy among Pregnant and Lactating Women in Saudi Arabia

“…The primary facilitator of vaccine acceptance among the participants was belief in protection from COVID-19. Our results provide further support for the so-called “protection motivation theory” in boosting vaccine acceptance [ 29 ]. This is a long-proposed theory that postulates that belief in the seriousness of the “individual threat appraisal” of COVID-19 and in the potential protection of the vaccine and uptake of the vaccines are the “occurrence of desired behaviors” [ 30 ].…”

Availability and prioritisation of COVID-19 vaccines among patients with advanced chronic kidney disease and kidney failure during the height of the pandemic: a global survey by the International Society of Nephrology

“…Social media impacts individual decisionmaking daily, and everyone everywhere should have an opportunity to accept vaccination. 42 It is also up to individual health systems to train their staff how to communicate correctly when talking about vaccines so that trust can be built in order to reduce such hesitancy. 43 44 A further significant barrier to access to vaccination among patients with kidney failure is the lack of logistical capabilities of lower-resource countries to store and deliver the vaccines.…”

How Motivation to Reduce Uncertainty Predicts COVID-19 Behavioral Responses: Strategic Health Communication Insights for Managing an Ongoing Pandemic

“…We controlled for age, gender ( female = 1, male = 0), education (median = Bachelor’s degree), and race/ethnicity (White = 1, non-White = 0). In addition to the demographic variables, we included the use of interpersonal sources for COVID-19 information and trust in social media as covariates as different information sources and trust in social media were found to influence the outcomes of our interest ( Li & Sun, 2021 ; Xiang & Hmielowski, 2017 ). Interpersonal source use was measured by asking participants the frequency of using four channels (a) face-to-face, (b) phone conversation, (c) e-mails from the people they know, and (d) SMS text from the people they know (Cronbach’s α = .89, M = 3.51, SD = 1.89) and social media trust was captured by three semantic differential items (e.g., very unbelievable–very believable; Cronbach’s α = .97, M = 3.79, SD = 1.93).…”