Investigating the determinants of vaccine hesitancy within undergraduate students’ social sphere

Investigating the determinants of vaccine hesitancy within undergraduate students’ social sphere

Aims Vaccine hesitancy is widely recognised as one of the most serious threats to current global health. While the causes underlying vaccine hesitancy have been extensively described and several mitigation strategies trialled amongst current and prospective parents, there is a relative scarcity of r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public health Vol. 30; no. 12; pp. 2791 - 2799
Main Authors: Siani, Alessandro, Driscoll, Megan, Hurst, Tia-mai, Coker, Tutu, Grantham, Alice Georgina, Bunet, Amrit
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-12-2022
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
College students
Demographics
Demography
Epidemiology
Global health
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Original
Original Article
Privacy
Public Health
Social networks
Social organization
Statistical analysis
Students
Surveys
Undergraduate study
University students
Vaccination
Vaccines
Ethnicity
Undergraduate students
Vaccine hesitancy
University
Religion
Age
Qualifications
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Summary:Aims Vaccine hesitancy is widely recognised as one of the most serious threats to current global health. While the causes underlying vaccine hesitancy have been extensively described and several mitigation strategies trialled amongst current and prospective parents, there is a relative scarcity of research investigating its extent and causative factors amongst university students, a critical demographic due to its temporal proximity to the average child-rearing age. The present study sought to address this literature gap by elucidating the social and demographic factors that might underpin vaccine hesitancy in university students. Subject and methods An anonymous online survey was carried out to investigate the opinions and perspectives on the practice of vaccination within undergraduate students’ social sphere. The statistical significance of the differences observed between groups of participants was analysed using non-parametric tests of variance. Results Amongst the 739 volunteers who participated in the survey, vaccine confidence varied significantly ( p  < 0.001) with age, ethnicity and religion, and to a lesser (yet still statistically significant) extent ( p  < 0.05) with graduate status. No statistically significant differences were observed with regard to gender or number of children. Conclusions By shedding new light on the factors underpinning vaccine hesitancy within undergraduate students’ social network, the present study provides a stepping stone towards the development of targeted mitigation strategies.
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ISSN:2198-1833
1613-2238
DOI:10.1007/s10389-021-01538-6