COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Poland—Multifactorial Impact Trajectories

Abstract

Since the declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic confirmed by World Health Organization, work on the development of vaccines has been stimulated. When vaccines are commonly available, a major problem is persistent vaccine hesitancy in many European countries. The main goal of our study was to understand the multidimensional factors inducing this phenomenon in Poland. Our study was carried out at the third wave’s peak of the pandemic, with record rates of daily cases and deaths associated with COVID-19. The results indicate that vaccine hesitancy/acceptability should always be considered in an interdisciplinary manner and according to identified factors where most negative attitudes could be altered. Our analyses included the assessment of a representative quota sample of adult Poles (N = 1000). The vaccine hesitancy in the studied group reached 49.2%. We performed stepwise logistic regression modeling to analyze variables set into six trajectories (groups) predicting the willingness to vaccinate. Apart from typical, socio-demographic and economic determinants, we identified the fear of vaccines’ side effects, beliefs in conspiracy theories and physical fitness. We were also able to establish the order of importance of factors used in a full model of all impact trajectories.

Persuasive Messages Will Not Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance: Evidence from a Nationwide Online Experiment

“…We also observe a number of strong main effects, largely confirming findings on the determinants of attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines reported previously for other countries. Furthermore, the general level of vaccine hesitancy is comparable to those reported previously in smaller samples in Poland as in Sowa [16].…”

“…In Poland, we are aware of surveys ordered by newspapers, which typically confirm the aforementioned demographic effects, namely higher COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in older individuals, males, people living in big cities [14], and those with higher education [15]. Very recently, Sowa et al [16] reported a study confirming these results and additionally emphasizing the role of belief in conspiracy theories and views about vaccine side effects.…”

Predictors of COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign Success: Lessons Learnt from the Pandemic So Far. A Case Study from Poland

“…Some of them were carried out at a time when a vaccine was a distant solution, and others during the vaccination campaigns in individual countries. They were conducted in Poland [1,2], the United States [3][4][5][6][7], Ireland and the United Kingdom [8,9], Australia [10], Canada [11], France [12], Italy [13][14][15], Portugal [16], Finland [17], Greece [18], China [19,20] and Japan [21]. As a result of multicentre cooperation, surveys in seven European countries [22], seven European countries and the United States [23], three Asian and five African countries [24], 23 Arab countries and territories [25] and 19 countries with a high COVID-19 burden [26] have been conducted.…”

“…The results of some studies were inconsistent with those of others, which of course is understandable given the different methodologies or research groups, as well as the issues studied and research questions asked. Several of the above-mentioned studies indicated that males [2,10,12,20,21,24], older individuals [13,14,16,18], those with a higher income and/or education level [11,12,14,16,24,29] or 2 of 13 those having been vaccinated against the flu previously [13,18,20,25,27] were more likely to accept a COVID-19 vaccine. The influence of many other factors, such as higher trust in government decisions [10,28], faith in science [15,28], political beliefs [4,5,7], perceived effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine [4,20], personally knowing someone who was infected by COVID-19 [12], living in a region with higher rates of COVID-19 infections [25], and living in smaller communities [13] were associated with a higher willingness to be vaccinated.…”

“…The influence of many other factors, such as higher trust in government decisions [10,28], faith in science [15,28], political beliefs [4,5,7], perceived effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine [4,20], personally knowing someone who was infected by COVID-19 [12], living in a region with higher rates of COVID-19 infections [25], and living in smaller communities [13] were associated with a higher willingness to be vaccinated. Factors associated with lower willingness to be vaccinated included conspiracy beliefs [2,8,15], being unemployed [6], having suffered financial consequences during COVID-19 pandemic [11] or living in disadvantaged areas [10]. The existence of racial or ethnic differences in individual countries was also shown [4,6].…”