Role of literacy, fear and hesitancy on acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among village health volunteers in Thailand

• Published in: PloS one 2022-06, Vol.17 (6), p.e0270023-e0270023
• Main Authors: Siewchaisakul, Pallop, Sarakarn, Pongdech, Nanthanangkul, Sirinya, Longkul, Jirapat, Boonchieng, Waraporn, Wungrath, Jukkrit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acceptance; Adenoviruses; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Biology and Life Sciences; Community; Consent; Coronaviruses; COVID-19 vaccines; Demographics; Disease transmission; Evaluation; Fear; Health education; Health literacy; Likert scale; Literacy; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mobile communications networks; mRNA; People and Places; Public health; Public health administration; Questionnaires; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Social networks; Vaccines; Validity; Villages; Volunteer workers in medical care
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270023

The roles of literacy, fear and hesitancy were investigated for acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine (AV) types among village health volunteers (VHVs) in Thailand. A cross-sectional study was conducted using an unidentified online questionnaire to assess literacy, fear and hesitancy of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among Thai VHVs between 1 and 15 October 2021. The questionnaire was developed based on the HLVa-IT (Health Literacy Vaccinale degli adulti in Italiano) for vaccine literacy (VL), using an adult Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (aVHS) for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy (VH) and Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCoV-19S) for the distress of COVID-19 vaccine. The effects of VL, VH and vaccine fear (VF) on AV were estimated using multivariable logistic regression. A total of 5,312 VHVs completed the questionnaire. After adjustment with variables in the multivariable analysis, the VL score was insignificantly associated with increased vaccination (aOR = 1.002; (95%CI: 0.994-1.01)), while VF and VH significantly decreased the chance of vaccination, aOR = 0.966 (95%CI: 0.953-0.978) and aOR = 0.969; (95%CI: 0.960-0.979), respectively and VF and VH were negatively associated with AV for all types of vaccine preference, with VL showing a reverse relationship only for mRNA-based vaccines. VL may not increase AV among VHVs. To increase attitudes toward receiving COVID-19 vaccination in Thailand, the government and health-related organizations should instigate policies to significantly reduce VF and VH among Thai VHVs.