Abstract
Vaccination is the most effective way to control the COVID-19 pandemic, but vaccination hesitancy threatens this effort worldwide. Consequently, there is a need to understand what influences individuals’ intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Restriction of information gathering on societal developments to social media may influence attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination through exposure to disinformation and imbalanced arguments. The present study examined the association between problematic social media use and intention to get the COVID-19 vaccine, taking into account the mediating roles of cyberchondria, fear of COVID-19, and COVID-19 risk perception. In a cross-sectional survey study, a total of 10,843 residents of Qazvin City, Iran completed measures on problematic social media use, fear of COVID-19, cyberchondria, COVID-19 risk perception, and intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that there was no direct association between problematic social media use and intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Nonetheless, cyberchondria, fear of COVID-19, and COVID-19 risk perception (each or serially) mediated associations between problematic social media use and intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine. These results add to the understanding of the role of problematic social media use in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, i.e., it is not the quantity of social media use per se that matters. This knowledge of the mediating roles of cyberchondria, fear of COVID-19, and COVID-19 risk perception can be used by public health experts and policymakers when planning educational interventions and other initiatives in COVID-19 vaccination programs.
Highlights
Introduction distributed under the terms andThe novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread around the world, the rate is decreasing
The present study examined the association between problematic social media use and intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine, taking into account the mediating roles of cyberchondria, fear of COVID-19, and COVID-19 risk perception
The analysis found no direct association between problematic social media use and intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but a direct positive association between problematic social media use and fear of COVID-19, problematic social media use and cyberchondria, and problematic social media use and COVID-19 risk perception
Summary
Introduction distributed under the terms andThe novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread around the world, the rate is decreasing. By December 2021, there had been over 264 million confirmed cases and over 5.25 million deaths worldwide [1]. In Iran (where the present study was carried out), there have been over 6.12 million confirmed cases and over 130,000 deaths conditions of the Creative Commons. Vaccination is the most effective way to control the COVID-19 pandemic, and since COVID-19 was first identified in late 2019, the pace at which vaccines have been developed and distributed is unprecedented [2,3]. By late November 2021, approximately 4.25 billion individuals out of a total population of 7.9 billion were vaccinated worldwide (3.35 billion fully and 899.67 million partly vaccinated) and 56.65 million out of a total 85.5 million Iranians were vaccinated (44.73 and 11.93 million fully and partly, respectively) [5,6]
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