A National Survey to Assess the COVID-19 Vaccine-Related Conspiracy Beliefs, Acceptability, Preference, and Willingness to Pay among the General Population of Pakistan
oleh: Muhammad Subhan Arshad, Iltaf Hussain, Tahir Mahmood, Khezar Hayat, Abdul Majeed, Imran Imran, Hamid Saeed, Muhammad Omer Iqbal, Muhammad Uzair, Anees ur Rehman, Waseem Ashraf, Areeba Usman, Shahzada Khurram Syed, Muqarrab Akbar, Muhammad Omer Chaudhry, Basit Ramzan, Muhammad Islam, Muhammad Usman Saleem, Waleed Shakeel, Iram Iqbal, Furqan Hashmi, Muhammad Fawad Rasool
| Format: | Article |
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| Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2021-07-01 |
Deskripsi
The current study aims to assess the beliefs of the general public in Pakistan towards conspiracy theories, acceptance, willingness to pay, and preference for the COVID-19 vaccine. A cross-sectional study was conducted through an online self-administered questionnaire during January 2021. The Chi-square test or Fisher exact test was utilized for statistical data analysis. A total of 2158 respondents completed the questionnaire, among them 1192 (55.2%) were male with 23.87 (SD: ±6.23) years as mean age. The conspiracy beliefs circulating regarding the COVID-19 vaccine were believed by 9.3% to 28.4% of the study participants. Among them, 1040 (48.2%) agreed to vaccinate on its availability while 934 (43.3%) reported the Chinese vaccine as their preference. The conspiracy beliefs of the participants were significantly associated with acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine. The existence of conspiracy beliefs and low vaccine acceptance among the general population is a serious threat to successful COVID-19 vaccination.