Psychological factors associated with vaccination hesitancy: an observational study of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in a later phase of the pandemic in Italy
Introduction Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 has been used to reduce the severity of COVID-19 disease and the incidence of new cases. However, a significant proportion of people have shown vaccination hesitancy. Methods This study explored psychological factors related to vaccination hesitancy in a s...
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| Published in: | Frontiers in psychiatry Vol. 14; p. 1272959 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A
19-10-2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Introduction
Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 has been used to reduce the severity of COVID-19 disease and the incidence of new cases. However, a significant proportion of people have shown vaccination hesitancy.
Methods
This study explored psychological factors related to vaccination hesitancy in a sample of Italian COVID-19 patients (
N
= 54), hospitalized during 2021, after vaccines had been made available and while the vaccination campaign was on-going. Consecutive patients, aged 18 or older, admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of COVID-19 were assessed with a set of standardized measures.
Results
In our sample, 48.1% was not vaccinated and 7.4% died within 6months after hospitalization, with a preponderance of deaths among non-vaccinated patients. Non-vaccinated participants had higher resilience scores at the CD-RISC-10 scale than vaccinated ones (33.6 ± 5.50 vs 28.6 ± 6.61; t40.2=+ 2.94,
p
= 0.005). No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups for any other measures.
Discussion
Higher levels of resilience among non-vaccinated patients may reflect greater identity worth and self-esteem, in turn resulting in a decrease in vaccination likelihood. This finding may have important public health implications, as it indicates that specific psychological aspects, such as resilience, may result in vaccination hesitancy, with implications for hospitalization rates, and thus healthcare costs, as well as loss of lives. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Reviewed by: Nicola Di Fazio, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Emilien Jeannot, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Switzerland Edited by: Erum Rehman, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan |
| ISSN: | 1664-0640 1664-0640 |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1272959 |