Vaccine hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine among the Malaysian population

Abstract

COVID-19 is a potentially fatal infectious disease that requires effective vaccines to keep the outbreak under control. Despite the ongoing efforts for an effective vaccine, public hesitancy towards vaccines is now one of the main concerns to the global health in containing this global pandemic. Thus, this preliminary study was carried out to assess the degree of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the general public in Malaysia and to identify the underlying reasons for their hesitancy by using 5C psychological antecedents of vaccination. This study was conducted by carrying out a cross-sectional online survey for approximately two months between January to February 2021, involving 385 participants. The survey contained questions based on the 5C model proffered by WHO. The data from the survey were analyzed using Smart PLS 3 for statistical analysis, with the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). According to the findings, only 62.5 percent out of the 385 participants had planned to get the COVID-19 vaccine, while the remaining 37.5 percent did not. The results also showed that confidence, calculation, collective responsibility, and constraints had a significant influence on vaccine hesitancy but not complacency. There is a degree of vaccine hesitancy towards the COVID-19 vaccines among the Malaysian population, although the data that we have obtained cannot be used to generalize for the entire Malaysian population due to the small sample size. Thus, for the vaccination campaign to be more effective, it should focus more on addressing the issue relating to confidence, calculation, collective responsibility, and constraints and less on complacency.

Factors influencing parents’ hesitancy to vaccinate their children aged 5–11 years old against COVID-19: results from a cross-sectional study in Malaysia

“…Studies from Switzerland and Bangladesh yielded similar results in the aspect of constraint ( 72 , 75 ). As opposed to our finding, previous research has found that constraint was a significant predictor of vaccine attitudes ( 73 ). All in all, the 5C model of psychological antecedents were important predictors of vaccine attitude in our study population.…”

“…Parents with higher collective responsibility were found to have lower vaccine hesitancy as people would be willing to receive vaccination for the benefits of others. Collective responsibility was found to be a strong predictor of vaccine acceptance in many studies across the globe (72)(73)(74)76). In our study, the only psychological antecedent in the 5C model that was not associated with negative vaccination attitudes was constraint.…”

“…The population from our study supported this and showed significant vaccine hesitancy when expressing complacency. However, two studies conducted in Switzerland and Malaysian did not obtain significant correlation between complacency with vaccine hesitancy (72,73). Parents expressed high calculation -referring to people undergoing extensive information gathering -were 7 times more likely to be vaccine-hesitant as compared to who were low.…”

“…This finding was similar to the studies in Switzerland and Israel, where confidence predicted intentions to vaccinate children against COVID-19 ( 51 , 72 ). A Malaysian study conducted among the adult population found significant correlation between confidence and vaccine hesitancy ( 73 ). The population from our study supported this and showed significant vaccine hesitancy when expressing complacency.…”

“…Parents expressed high calculation -referring to people undergoing extensive information gathering -were 7 times more likely to be vaccine-hesitant as compared to who were low. Various studies have shown that calculation may predict lower vaccine intention (72)(73)(74)(75). Depending on the sources of information search, calculation may influence vaccination attitudes in diverse ways.…”