Reasons for being unsure or unwilling regarding intention to take COVID-19 vaccine among Japanese people: A large cross-sectional national survey

Abstract

Background Identifying and understanding reasons for being unsure or unwilling regarding intention to be vaccinated against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) may help to inform future public health messages aimed at increasing vaccination coverage. We analyzed a broad array of individual's psychological dispositions with regard to decision-making about COVID-19 vaccination in Japan. Methods A nationally representative cross-sectional web survey was conducted with 30053 Japanese adults aged 20 years or older at the end of February 2021. In addition to the question on the individual's intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19, respondents were asked about their sociodemographic, health-related, and psychological characteristics as well as information sources about COVID-19 and their levels of trust. Also, those who responded ‘not sure’ or ‘no’ regarding intention to take COVID-19 vaccine were asked why. Multinomial logistic regression with sparse group Lasso (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator) penalty was used to compute adjusted odds ratios for factors associated with the intention (not sure/no versus yes). Findings The percentages of respondents who answered ‘not sure’ or ‘no’ regarding intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccine were 32.9% and 11.0%, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, the perceived risks of COVID-19, perceived risk of a COVID-19 vaccine, perceived benefits of a COVID-19 vaccine, trust in scientists and public authorities, and the belief that healthcare workers should be vaccinated were significantly associated with vaccination intention. Several sources of information about COVID-19 were also significantly associated with vaccination intention, including physicians, nurses, and television, medical information sites with lower odds of being unsure or unwilling, and internet news sites, YouTube, family members, and scientists and researchers with higher odds. The higher the level of trust in television as a source of COVID-19 information, the higher the odds of responding ‘not sure’ (odds ratio 1.11, 95% confidence interval 1.01–1.21). We also demonstrated that many respondents presented concerns about the side effects and safety of a COVID-19 vaccine as a major reason for being unsure or unwilling. To decide whether or not to get the vaccine, many respondents requested more information about the compatibilities between the vaccine and their personal health conditions, whether other people had been vaccinated, the effectiveness of vaccines against variants, and doctors’ recommendations. Interpretation Our findings suggest that public health messaging based on the sociodemographic and psychological characteristics of those who are unsure or unwilling regarding intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccine may help to increase vaccine uptake amongst this population. Funding The present work was supported in part by a grant from the...

COVID-19 vaccination intention in the Western Pacific Region – insights from Japan

“…Besides, Shuhei Nomura and colleagues reported an overall 56.1% of respondents answering "yes" regarding their intention to have COVID-19 vaccination, which was said to be comparable to the results in similar surveys in western countries [1] . However, such intention, seemingly, has not been effectively translated into actual vaccination coverage which still fell short of 40% in Japan in July 2021 [4] .…”

“…In The Lancet Regional Health -Western Pacific , Shuhei Nomura and colleagues reported their interesting findings of a large-scale survey in Japan on COVID-19 vaccination intentions [1] . It is one of the largest surveys studying factors associated with the vaccination intention [2 , 3] .…”

Knowledge about, attitude and acceptance towards, and predictors of intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine among cancer patients in Eastern China: A cross-sectional survey

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Identification of optimum combinations of media channels for approaching COVID-19 vaccine unsure and unwilling groups in Japan

“… 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 In this study, the set of ( L j , β j ) was first estimated using the simulated annealing algorithm, and then we estimated (α 0 , α j ) after plugging the estimated ( L j , β j ) into the model using the maximum likelihood method. Based on previous studies, 16 , 25 , 26 , 31 , 32 the vector Z j includes the following socio-demographic and health-related covariates (see Table 1 for more detailed sub-categories): Occupation type (categorical), 16 , 25 , 31 Income (continuous) 27 , 31 , 32 Education level (continuous), 25 , 31 , 32 Gender (category of women, men or others), 26 , 31 and underlying diseases (categorical). 26 We asked the existence of underlying diseases such as “do you have an underlying disease (diabetes, heart failure, and respiratory disorders [COPD], etc.)?…”