TY - JOUR
T1 - The importance of ‘dread risk’ for vaccine communication
AU - Day, Ashleigh M.
AU - Volkman, Julie E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Background: Perceptions of ‘dread risk,’ information source beliefs, and trust in these sources are important variables towards understanding vaccine attitudes. The main objective of this research was to learn the associations among these phenomena and, particularly, how these variables may impact our understanding of vaccine attitudes. Methods: In the summer of 2020, a total of 336 (Mage = 53.55; SDage = 18.58) participants answered an online Qualtrics survey about their ‘dread risk’ perceptions of vaccines, their information source beliefs (e.g. credible, easy-to-access, etc.), trust in information sources, and vaccine attitudes. Results: Results suggest participants had generally low levels of negative vaccine attitudes (M = 3.27; SD = 1.40). Regression analyses to predict negative vaccine attitudes found ‘dread risk’ perceptions to be the most significant predictor (beta =.61, p <.001), over and above information source beliefs and trust in information sources (F (9, 320) = 75.07, p <.001; adjusted R2 =.67). Age was also significantly and negatively correlated with ‘dread risk’ (r = -.22, p <.001). Conclusions: Results suggest that vaccine communication efforts should continue to identify individuals’ ‘dread risk’ perceptions about vaccines and emphasize this content in messaging. Future research should aim to understand more about the relationships between negative vaccine attitudes, ‘dread risk’ perceptions, information source beliefs, and trust in information sources to better predict vaccine-related decisions, (in)actions, and to support effective vaccine communication.
AB - Background: Perceptions of ‘dread risk,’ information source beliefs, and trust in these sources are important variables towards understanding vaccine attitudes. The main objective of this research was to learn the associations among these phenomena and, particularly, how these variables may impact our understanding of vaccine attitudes. Methods: In the summer of 2020, a total of 336 (Mage = 53.55; SDage = 18.58) participants answered an online Qualtrics survey about their ‘dread risk’ perceptions of vaccines, their information source beliefs (e.g. credible, easy-to-access, etc.), trust in information sources, and vaccine attitudes. Results: Results suggest participants had generally low levels of negative vaccine attitudes (M = 3.27; SD = 1.40). Regression analyses to predict negative vaccine attitudes found ‘dread risk’ perceptions to be the most significant predictor (beta =.61, p <.001), over and above information source beliefs and trust in information sources (F (9, 320) = 75.07, p <.001; adjusted R2 =.67). Age was also significantly and negatively correlated with ‘dread risk’ (r = -.22, p <.001). Conclusions: Results suggest that vaccine communication efforts should continue to identify individuals’ ‘dread risk’ perceptions about vaccines and emphasize this content in messaging. Future research should aim to understand more about the relationships between negative vaccine attitudes, ‘dread risk’ perceptions, information source beliefs, and trust in information sources to better predict vaccine-related decisions, (in)actions, and to support effective vaccine communication.
KW - Attitudes
KW - risk
KW - source beliefs
KW - trust
KW - vaccines
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U2 - 10.1080/17538068.2024.2393918
DO - 10.1080/17538068.2024.2393918
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85202014932
SN - 1753-8068
JO - Journal of Communication in Healthcare
JF - Journal of Communication in Healthcare
ER -