Social Media COVID-19 Information and Vaccine Decision: A Latent Class Analysis

Abstract

Aims: To identify the impact of the information consumption modalities related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its vaccine, on the vaccination decision among the social media users. Also to study the relationships between vaccination attitudes, and latent subgroups, socio-demographic variables, fear of COVID-19 and perceived stress. Method: A total of 723 subjects (male: n = 353; 48.8%; female: n = 370; 51.2%), aged 31.08 ± 10.77, participated in our survey prepared online on the Google Forms application via the platforms Twitter and Facebook. Results: Five latent classes were identified by the analysis: Class 1 (mixed consumers), class 2 (the largest consumers of social media), class 3 (consumers of official information), class 4 (low consumers of information on the vaccine) and class 5 (social media consumers information verifiers). Also, the subgroup that is knowledgeable about COVID-19 pandemic and its vaccine, and who consumes the most information about the vaccine from official sources, is the one with the highest vaccine acceptance rate. In addition, the hesitant attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccine was linked to gender and mask wearing, while refusal behavior was linked to age, female gender, education level, mask wearing, and fear of COVID-19. Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that specific interventions on social media are needed, to reduce hesitancy rates, and the refusal of vaccination, which is crucial in this period of prevailing of COVID-19 virus.