Vaccine hesitancy and its association with demographics, mental health, and disability: Findings from the VH-3 study in the United States, India, and China

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19, has claimed millions of lives since December 2019. The rapid development of vaccine candidates and treatments has led to increased confusion and mistrust regarding the development, emergency authorization, and approval processes. To better understand vaccine hesitancy, we analyzed two publicly available datasets: One from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Covid-19 database and the other from the United States (US) Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey Phase 3.2. In India, 90.2% of 1,761 participants indicated acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. A binary logistic regression model, using vaccine hesitancy as a dichotomous variable, showed that rural populations had an odds ratio (OR) of 3.45 (p < 0.05) for vaccine hesitancy. In addition, income played a significant role, with individuals earning 7501 – 15,000 Indian Rupees (INR)/month, or US$ 91 – 183, having an OR of 1.41 compared to other income groups. In the US, 67.3% of 1,768 participants expressed willingness to accept the vaccine. White participants had an OR > 1 compared to other racial groups, while low-income groups earning US$ 2000 – 4999/month had an OR of 1.03. In China, 90.0% of 1,727 participants indicated they would accept a vaccine, with high-income groups showing the least resistance (OR = 0.96) compared to other groups. Among the three countries studied, the US exhibited the highest rate of vaccine hesitancy. This ongoing issue warrants attention from the World Health Organization.

Keywords

Vaccine hesitancy / COVID-19 / Pandemic / SARS-Cov-2 / Mental health / Multinomial logistic regression

Funding

None.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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