Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Publication

Unvaccinated adolescents’ COVID-19 vaccine intentions: Implications for public health messaging [poster]

Ryan, Grace W
Askelson, Natoshia M
Woodworth, Kate R.
Lindley, Megan C.
Gedlinske, Amber
Parker, Andrew M.
Gidengil, Courtney A.
Petersen, Christine A.
Scherer, Aaron M.
Embargo Expiration Date
Link to Full Text
Abstract

Background: Low rates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among U.S. adolescents contribute to excess morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 infection. To date, much of the research on vaccine intentions has only assessed parents’ perspectives about their children. Understanding adolescents’ intentions and information sources on COVID-19 vaccination may help in designing effective communications to promote uptake.

Objective: We assessed differences in intention and trusted sources of COVID-19 vaccine information between unvaccinated vaccine-acceptant and vaccine-hesitant U.S. adolescents using national survey data.

Design/Methods: Adolescents, aged 13-17, were recruited through an online survey panel in April 2021. A total of 1,927 adolescents completed screening and our final sample included 985 responses. We only analyzed data from unvaccinated adolescents (n=831). COVID-19 vaccination intent (“vaccine-acceptant” defined as “definitely will” get a COVID-19 vaccine and any other response classified as “vaccine-hesitant”) was our primary measure. Secondary measures included reasons for intending or not intending to get vaccinated and trusted sources of information about COVID-19 vaccination. We calculated descriptive statistics and used chi-square tests to assess potential differences between vaccine-acceptant and vaccine-hesitant adolescents.

Results: Most (n=589; 70.9%) adolescents were vaccine-hesitant, with increased hesitancy among those with lower levels of concern about COVID-19 infection and higher levels of concern about vaccine side effects. Among vaccine-hesitant adolescents, reasons for not intending to get vaccinated included wanting to wait for safety data and having parents who would make the decision. Vaccine-hesitant adolescents had a lower number of trusted information sources (M=2.75) compared to vaccine-acceptant adolescents (M=4.35). The top three sources of trusted information were government officials (45.8% of hesitant adolescents; 80.2% of acceptant adolescents), state/local health officials (38.7% of hesitant adolescents; 70.7% of acceptant adolescents), and usual healthcare provider (37.0% of hesitant adolescents; 64.1% of acceptant adolescents).

Conclusion(s): We identified important differences between COVID-19 vaccine-accepting and vaccine-hesitant adolescents, which can inform communication with hesitant adolescents in terms of message content and dissemination channels. Targeting reasons for hesitancy by using theory-based messaging strategies to address them could prove to be an important next step for developing adolescent-facing communications.

Source

Ryan GW, Askelson N, Woodworth KR, Lindley MC, Gedlinske A, Parker AM, Gidengil CA, Petersen CA, Scherer AM. Unvaccinated adolescents’ COVID-19 vaccine intentions: Implications for public health messaging. Poster presentation. Pediatric Academic Societies, Washington, DC, 2023.

Year of Medical School at Time of Visit
Sponsors
Dates of Travel
DOI
10.13028/sjvb-j879
PubMed ID
Other Identifiers
Notes
Funding and Acknowledgements
NA, AG, AP, CG, CA, and AS are supported by a Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention #1U01IP001144. AS was supported by K01 Award 1K01AG065440 from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging. GR is supported by National Cancer Institute Grant #T32 CA172009. The NIH/NIA had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, or review.
Corresponding Author
Related Resources
Related Resources
Repository Citation
Rights
Copyright © 2023 The Author(s); Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International