COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Demographics in Iran: Sequential Mediation Model Through Mistrust in Science and Belief in COVID-19 Vaccine Conspiracy Theories

Abstract

Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy could help future public health messaging. In this study we planned to study the sociodemographic determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, as well as the sequential mediation relationship between sociodemographic variables and vaccine hesitancy, through mistrust in science and belief in COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories. This is a cross-sectional study conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak, between 23rd September and 29th December 2021 on 701 Iranian people. Participants were reached via various social media platforms and data were collected with an online survey using Google forms. Completed questionnaires were obtained and analyzed using logistic regression analysis and PROCESS Macro at significance level of 0.05 using SPSS. Current study demonstrates that 92.45% of participants were eager to be vaccinated or have already been vaccinated at the time of data collection. Low education, having background medical condition and belief in traditional complementary and alternative medicine are significantly correlated with vaccine hesitancy. Moreover, Logistic regression results showed that having background medical condition and belief in traditional complementary and alternative medicine significantly predict the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. In addition, education and belief in traditional complementary and alternative medicine indirectly affect COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy as they influence mistrust in science and belief in COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories. This research indicates the critical role that trust in science plays as the mediator between vaccine hesitancy and its predictors. In addition, low-educated people and traditional complementary and alternative medicine believers should be given special importance when developing interventions for tackling the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy problem.